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HAY FEVER 



AND 

CATARRH OF HEAD 
AND NOSE 

WITH THEIR 

PREVENTIVE AND CURATIVE 
TREATMENT. 

BY 

E. B. FANNING, M. D. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

BOERICKE & TAFEL. 

1901. 



5\ 







THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

AUG. 28 1901 

COPVRItHT EKTRV 

^ CLASS O^ xXt. N«. 
COPY B. 



-*v> 






> 



COPYRIGHTED 1901 
BY BOERICKE & TAFEL. 



T. B. & H. B. COCHRAN, PRINTERS, 
/ •• " ,VAN/?A«3T,3R, FA. 



> • • 

i * * 
. • . * 



PREFACE. 



In offering this little volume to the 
profession as a practical treatise on 
this one very annoying disease, I feel 
that it will fill a void in our literature, 
and at the same time will reveal the 
means of relieving and ultimately cur- 
ing numberless cases. 

The symptoms are nearly all taken 
from my own case, but covers about 
all the various pains and ill feelings 
this disease produces. 

In Part II. of this work I have given 
a light, practical treatment on catarrh 
of the head and nose, covering just 
such cases as the busy practitioner 
meets with every day, with the reme- 
dies and their indications as I have 
used them in my practice daily for 



iv Preface. 

fifteen years, and successfully. I have 
also given the remedies used under 
different heads, namely, neutralizers 
and contractors, which I trust will en- 
able the physician to better adapt his 
remedies to the disease. 

E. B. Fanning, M. D. 

Philadelphia, Pa., 

1544 S. 13th St. 



To 

Hay Fever Sufferers, 

and 

To All Who Have 

Catarrh of Head and Nose, 

Is This Work 

Dedicated 

By 

The Author. 



HAY FEVER. 

Its Cause and Effects, With 

Preventive and Curative 

Treatment. 

Extract Taken From My Own Case. 

Hay fever, as every physician is 
aware, is a catarrhal affection ap- 
pearing in some persons as early 
as Jnly, bnt generally abont the 
middle or last of Angust or first of 
September, and continuing with 
more or less violence until there is 
one or more frosts to clear and dry 
the atmosphere. The cause of this 
horrible malady seems to be a very 
baffling question to our patholo- 
gists. I feel quite sure if they but 



8 Hay Fever. 

knew the cause and the seat of it, 
as I will endeavor to explain, the 
prevention of this disease will be 
carried out successfully in number- 
less cases. 

For thirteen years I have battled 
with this affliction, only to conquor 
and see the results of my most 
earnest efforts practically illus- 
trated and proved physiologically 
and chemically during the season 
just past. During the years I suf- 
fered many persons asked what 
was ailing me, and when I replied 
hay fever they would invariably 
remark sympathetically, " You can 
never be cured, can you ? I always 
answered, " There is only one way 
to cure it, and that is to prevent 
it." This assertion, I am quite 



Hay Fever. 9 

positive, will hold good for some 
time to come, for the prevention is 
more easily accomplished and is a 
surer and better cure. I never felt 
but what in time I would master 
it, but to determine the cause of 
all this violent irritation and its 
seat was the problem I had to 
solve. The text-books gave me no 
information ; in fact, they seemed 
to almost ignore this one very im- 
portant affection, and at the same 
time their authors knowing very 
well that thousands of people were 
suffering with this disease every 
season. 

I was first attacked with it in 
the summer of 1887, while practic- 
ing in Smyrna, Del. It came on 
me suddenly, about 2 A. M., like 



10 Hay Fever. 

an ordinary attack of spasmodic 
croup and lasted for a couple of 
hours. I tried Hepar, Aconite and 
Bromine without relief. Then my 
wife, becoming alarmed, went for a 
physician. I do not remember 
what he gave me on that visit, but 
the next day he prescribed Aurum 
met. the thirtieth. I did not have 
another attack at night that season, 
and the whole trouble passed off 
nicely ; but that remedy has never 
done me any good since, although 
it seemed to be well indicated. As 
years passed the attacks grew worse, 
lasted longer and were much more 
severe. I feel sure I have suffered 
all the horrors that any person has 
ever suffered with this terrible af- 
fection. 



Hay Fever. 11 

The late Dr. Urie, of Chester, 
Pa., prescribed Kali suL 5m. for 
me one season and broke it up im- 
mediately. Then I thought I had 
a sure cure, but the next season it 
returned with all its violence; and 
when I thought the symptoms 
called for this remedy I took it in 
the thirtieth, but got no results. 
I was at a loss to know what to do, 
but not altogether discouraged. I 
never experienced any relief again 
until the season of 1894, the ac- 
count of which I have given in 
detail under the head of throat 
symptoms. I never received any 
relief after that until the past 
season, when it only threatened, 
but did not set in. During the 
last four years I have given it 



12 Hay Fever. 

more thought and study, for I felt 
if any person was capable of 
searching out the cause and its 
seat a physician who is a suf- 
ferer should be the one to do it. I 
was sure there was a great deal of 
acidity to the discharges from the 
nose, mouth and eyes. Then, after 
I concluded it was an acid in the 
secretions and not the nerves, it 
puzzled me to know where or how 
it generated, but as I continued to 
study it gradually unfolded itself 
to me. Then, after finding the 
cause and its seat, I felt it was still 
a difficult task to learn just why 
it bothered us at that one par- 
ticular season, but this was finally 
solved. 

There is one thought that we, 



Hay Fever. 13 

as physicians, must strive to keep 
in our minds, and that is this, that 
there are acids of one kind or an- 
other circulating in our blood more 
or less of the time. This need not 
necessarily be limited to catarrhal 
cases, and the amount is altogether 
controlled by the weather; and the 
acid in excess is the one which 
produces its own particular symp- 
toms, whether they are catarrhal, 
rheumatic, or hay fever, or some 
other. 

For a number of years I con- 
cluded that the whole trouble 
originated in the spinal nerves, 
and through them affecting my 
stomach, as this organ would get 
terribly out of order on the least 
provocation. My appetite would 



14 Hay Fever. 

entirely fail, I would grow weak 
and have strong malarial symp- 
toms. If I would stand in the sun 
for a few minutes sneezing would 
set in. Chills would run up my 
spine. So while the sun's warmth 
was soothing to me in one sense 
it aggravated the real condition. 

This was during the summer of 
1890, and while I was practicing 
in Maryland. These same symp- 
toms would be caused if I were rid- 
ing along the road in a top car- 
riage, if I were facing the sun, but 
only during the months of July 
and August of that one year, which 
was the year of my worst suffer- 
ing. I still maintained the same 
opinion as to the cause after I 
came to this city, but concluded it 



Hay Fever. 15 

came from the nerve centres at the 
base of the brain, for dnring later 
years almost the first symptoms 
exhibited were abnormal heat in 
the occipital region and profuse 
sweating of the head at night. 
The amount of the latter exceeded 
anything I ever saw. After these 
sweats continued for a few nights 
I would have queer and peculiar 
sensations in my brain. Then I 
thought it must be caused by 
anaemia of the brain, due to im- 
poverished blood, so I studied dif- 
ferent works on this disease, but 
found no connection between 
anaemia and hay fever. The more 
I read and studied the more I be- 
came convinced that it was not in 
the nerves at all, but in the blood. 



16 Hay Fever. 

Then by studying my physiology 
and chemistry on these fluids, its 
actions and changes under the 
action of certain of its chemical 
salts, also the effects of climatic 
and atmospherical changes, I 
learned that a lack of the chlorides 
and sulphates in the blood cells 
caused them to relax, and that an 
increase of the iron salts would 
cause them to contract again, and 
an insufficient supply of oxygen 
and an incomplete oxygenization 
of the blood in sultry or damp 
weather causes acid to form in this 
fluid, and as soon as this begins to 
take place the blood begins to relax, 
and as it relaxes water increases. 
This acid fluid penetrating every 
gland and tissue of the body, irri- 



Hay Fever. 17 

tating the various membranes and 
glands, causing, as it does, watery, 
irritating discharges from the eyes 
and nose, with violent, spasmodic 
sneezing, are a few of the many 
objective symptoms, to say noth- 
ing of the numerous subjective 
ones, gives some idea of what this 
circulating poison can produce. 
After I became convinced that the 
cause was an acid, and its seat was 
in the blood, it took me quite a 
long time to learn just how it got 
there and what was necessary for 
its production. 

Further explanations of these 
salts, above mentioned, and their 
actions will be given under the 
heads of climate and treatment. 

I always noticed the fact that if 
2 



18 Hay Fever. 

I were feeling well at the begin- 
ning of the season I did not suffer 
so severely or so long from the 
attack. But if I had been suffer- 
ing with catarrhal colds and my 
system was more or less exhausted 
from the effects of the same, I 
suffered more intensely, and would 
not wholly recover from it until 
late the following spring. 

Last spring I suffered with an 
attack of grip which ended up in 
catarrhal bronchitis, from which I 
lost considerable flesh and strength. 
Finally I got better, but I was a 
physical wreck and in no condi- 
tion to do battle with my old 
enemy. For that reason I dreaded 
its approach, as I was sure I would 
suffer severely. But I began with 



Hay Fever. 19 

preventive treatment and got my 
system recuperated again, and 
waited in vain for the attack, which 
to my gratification did not molest 
me except in a slightly threaten- 
ing manner. My appetite failed 
for a few days, but it soon returned 
again with double force, and I held 
my strength all through the sea- 
son, notwithstanding I remained 
in the city all summer, never going 
farther from my office than Fair- 
mount Park and return. 

Just why this disease will at- 
tack a person on the same day 
every year and continue to do so 
annually for a period of forty years 
is more than I have been able to 
discover. I am acquainted with 
one such case, that of a lady whom 



20 Hay Fever. 

I had met but once, and afterwards 
was informed that she was a ter- 
rible sufferer from hay fever. We 
were both living in the same town 
in Delaware, but shortly after 
meeting her she and her husband 
moved to Pennsylvania and I 
moved to Maryland. 

During my second attack I got 
to thinking about her, and won- 
dering in my mind if being a ter- 
rible sufferer from this disease 
meant worse suffering than I was 
experiencing. The more I thought 
about it the more I felt I ought to 
send her medicine. Finally I made 
up my mind that I would do so 
the next season, and without first 
writing to learn if she would ac- 
cept and take it, or whether she 



Hay Fever. 21 

was a believer in sugar pills. But 
I felt sure this would not have 
much weight with a person in the 
grasp of this disease, for I am posi- 
tive they would take anything, 
from a disciple of any school, even 
if they only saw an imaginary hope 
of relief. 

The following season, at about 
the time, judging from the in- 
ception of my own attack, I pre- 
pared a package of Arsenicum yn, 
Pulsatilla iooox, powders, one of 
each to be dissolved in a separate 
glass a third or half full of water. 
Dose, teaspoonful every half hour, 
alternately. About a week after- 
wards I received a letter from her 
stating she had received the letter 
with medicine, which she prepared 



22 Hay Fever. 

and began taking at once. Relief 
came in about two hours, and the 
whole attack broke up in about 
three days, for which she felt very 
grateful to me; also stating she 
had had the disease every year 
since she was ten years old, and 
that it had appeared on the same 
day each year — August 19th — for 
about thirty-five years, and during 
all those years she had never ex- 
perienced relief from anything she 
had ever taken before ; so I felt 
quite elated, and the next year I 
prepared and sent the same reme- 
dies, which she took, but without 
any effect at all, and as soon as 
I had read her letter in reply and 
noted what she said I concluded 
it was Apis she required, so I sent 



Hay Fever. 23 

Apis iooo, and Nux third dilution 
for stomach and bowels. These 
remedies relieved her some, but 
not entirely. 

Several years after this, and after 
I moved to this city, I wrote her, 
and the first opportunity she had 
to visit here she called at my office. 
We had quite a long talk. She 
felt quite elated over the partial 
success of the treatment, and as- 
sured me she had never suffered so 
severely as she did before taking 
the medicine. I then gave her 
medicine and put her on Hensel's 
Tonicum. I never heard from her 
again until after I wrote her about 
a month ago, when she stated she 
was still a sufferer from the old 
trouble. I mention this case at 



24 Hay Fever. 

length to show how certain reme- 
dies will break up the attack in a 
certain system one season and ab- 
solutely fail the next in the same 
system, when apparently all things 
are equal. 

Etiology. 

The cause of hay fever, as we 
have shown, is an acid in the blood, 
but to study this subject better let 
us divide the patients into two 
classes. First class will include 
all those cases who have catarrh of ' 
the head and nose more or less all 
the year round, and have hay fever 
in its season. Second class, those 
who do not suffer except in hay 
fever season. The first named is 
of the genuine acid diathesis, and 



Etiology. 25 

suffers more or less with colds from 
every change of weather from dry 
to damp, for the blood and general 
system relaxes and contracts just 
as the weather relaxes and con- 
tracts, and every time this occurs 
a fresh attack of head and nasal 
catarrh results, and by the time 
this breaks and discharges another 
change in the weather occurs and 
the same condition repeats itself. 
But if after one or more of these 
attacks the weather clears and con- 
tinues dry for a prolonged period 
he will get quite well. 

The catarrhal subject is more 
susceptible to climatic changes 
than any other person. He feels 
every change no matter how slight 
it may be, and one or more sneezes 



26 Hay Fever. 

is his signal. The amount of 
change will generally determine 
the number of sneezes. If it is a 
change from clear weather to fair 
and colder he will seldom suffer 
any bad effects, and trouble, if any 
occurs, will generally correct itself, 
providing the weather remains 
clear. 

Whenever a change to wet 
occurs, whether cold and damp or 
warm and damp, the first effect on 
the catarrhal patient is an ac- 
cumulation of acid in the blood, 
with relaxing of this fluid, and an 
increase of w r ater, with relaxing of 
the whole system. If the weather 
is raw he is very chilly and cannot 
get warm unless right over a hot 
fire. If the weather is sultry he 



Etiology. 27 

is very languid, sweats and feels 
lazy and miserable. If it is August 
and the weather continues sultry, 
the acid and water increase more 
and more, the secretions from mem- 
branes and glands become acrid, 
the patient begins to sneeze, etc. 
If it is remembered that acid and 
water increasing in the blood are 
always the cause of relaxing of 
this fluid the balance of the theory 
can be quite readily understood. 
Apparently the catarrhal form of 
hay fever seems to be nothing 
more or less than an aggravated 
condition of a certain form of 
catarrh of the head and nose, and 
this aggravation is wholly due to 
the' patient's exhausted condition 
and a decrease in the amount of 



28 Hay Fever. 

oxygen in the atmosphere at a 
particular season of the year. 

The second class or simple hay 
fever cases may belong ordinarily 
to the alkaline or neutral class at 
all other periods of the year, and 
only reduced to the acid condition 
at this particular season, and then 
only because their blood is robbed 
of a portion of its oxygen diet. 
Being differently constituted from 
his co-sufferers, he cannot stand 
the sea air laden with its abundance 
of chlorides and sulphates, its bro- 
mine, iodine, magnesia, etc.; his 
must be a more rarefied or lighter 
atmosphere, for he is not ordinarily 
a catarrhal subject. What his 
system requires as stated above is 
a little more oxygen ; perhaps 



Symptoms. 29 

there is already in the system suf- 
ficient iron, but not enough of the 
former coming from the atmosphere 
to nourish it sufficiently to hold the 
blood in contraction. This would 
seem to be the condition present 
in some cases I have seen. 

Symptoms. 

These are numerous and show a 
marked similarity in all cases. 
The catarrhal cases suffer much 
longer than the pure hay fever 
ones do. Under the names of the 
different organs affected I will 
detail the symptoms as near as I 
can as they affected me, which I 
feel quite sure will cover almost 
every pain this disease has ever 
produced. 



30 Hay Fever. 

Heredity undoubtedly plays an 
important role in the reproduction 
of this disease, and coming from 
the source it does it cannot be 
ignored as a prominent cause. 

Eyes. 

We will speak of these first, as 

generally the first symptoms of 

the disease are felt in these or- 
gans. Some seasons as early as 

the middle of June, if the weather 

was close and hot, I would have a 

feeling as if down were on the 

lashes, or feathers before eyes ; at 

other times sparkling or like moons 

before them, and if it got very 

sultry the lashes would feel crossed; 

but these would all disappear on 

the approach of better weather, and 

I would think no more of it. 



Eyes. 31 

These conditions would appear 
and disappear again and again, 
just as the weather fluctuated from 
clear and dry to moist and sultry, 
until the middle of July #r first of 
August, when the weather became 
hot and humid ; then the head 
trouble would set in and all the 
former troubles would be aggra- 
vated, and the symptoms above 
mentioned were more or less con- 
tinuous. The discharge from the 
eyes, which at first is watery and 
slightly irritating, becomes more 
slimy and acrid, and as the disease 
proceeds the secretions become 
mixed with matter or tough mucus, 
which can be pulled out in strings 
and is very elastic. These strings 
of mucus irritate the eyeballs and 



32 Hay Fever. 

produce sharp pains like the pierc- 
ing of very fine needles running 
from before backwards into the 
eyes. This mucus mats the lids 
together at night, becomes d^ and 
scratches the ball sufficiently to 
awaken the patient, who finds that 
he cannot open them, nor can he 
see until he first soaks the lids 
loose. I have had this occur to 
me four times in a single night, 
and on more than one occasion. 

From the constant running and 
wiping of the eyes the discharge 
gets more or less on the cheeks, 
and from its acidity corrodes the 
skin, which finally dries and chafes 
off in fine scales, only to be re- 
peated over and over again. Small 
tumefied bodies form on the edges 



Eyes. 33 

of the lower lids. These irritate 
the ball and create an inclination 
to wipe the eyes, but to do this 
simply means to set the whole 
pain-causing machinery in motion. 
Then there will be itching as a 
greater inducement to rub, and the 
more you do the latter the greater 
the former, with burning, stinging, 
smarting, and biting ; then again 
these organs will become very red 
and inflamed. At times there will 
be a sensation as if sand had been 
thrown in them. The lashes will 
fall out very fast. One season I 
suffered severely with styes. On 
numerous occasions the eye-pains 
have been so severe they forced me 
to seek my bed. I always suffered 
worse with my left eye first, then, 



34 Hay Fever, 

as it would improve, the right one 
would become worse, but would 
not be bad so long. There is con- 
siderable photophobia but not con- 
tinuous. 

Head. 

The first symptom of import- 
ance is an abnormal heat at base 
of the brain, with profuse sweating 
of the head at night, sufficient to 
soak the pillow thoroughly and 
sheet under my shoulders. The 
more sultry the weather the more 
intense the above condition. At 
times my brain would seem weak- 
ened and head felt light. This 
always increased the optical illu- 
sions very much, but these abnor- 
malities improved with better 



Head. 35 

weather, only to return when a 
change for the worse occurred. 
There was generally a cough 
present which always caused vio- 
lent headache. After the heat and 
sweating would continue for a few 
days gatherings would form in 
the frontal sinuses and discharge 
through the nose and hawked 
from the throat a yellow or green, 
slimy, acrid mucus of a very 
brassy, coppery, sweet or salty 
taste, and often so acrid it would 
bite my tongue and lips before it 
could be spat away. 



36 Hay Fever. 



Nose. 

This organ shows the first symp- 
toms of the catarrhal nature of this 
disease. It manifests itself first 
by sneezing, followed by a bland, 
watery, sometimes hot discharge, 
which after a few days or a week 
becomes slimy and irritating, mak- 
ing the nose sore inside, and the 
constant wiping which is required 
to keep it dry causes soreness on 
the outside 

At times, when indoors, the nose 
would close, but upon going into 
the open air would open again, but 
not always; for on very sultry days 
the nose would be closed more or 
less all the time; or if I should get 



Nose. 37 

into a current of air it would open 
almost instantly, and close again 
just as soon as I returned to the 
close condition. If the day would 
happen to be unusually humid I 
was very stuffy, and would have to 
breathe through my mouth all day, 
and would be constantly in dread 
of spasm of the larynx. Sometimes 
I could scarcely speak a word for 
fear of this condition. At times 
the membrane inside the nose will 
begin to swell and completely close 
the canal. Then if the finger is 
thrust gently in the nose it will 
come in contact with the mem- 
branous walls, which to the touch 
will feel somewhat like the sensa- 
tion produced by pressing the 
finger between two very fine, vel- 



38 Hay Fever. 

vety cushions. When this is done 
and the finger is withdrawn , it will 
be found to be perfectly dry. The 
membranes have a glossy feeling. 
This dry condition only lasts for a 
few seconds or perhaps half a 
minute, when almost before I would 
be aware of it a warm, mild, bland 
water would run from this still 
swollen membrane and drop down 
into my lap. This sometimes 
would be followed by a dozen or 
more sneezes and the nose would 
open, but the larynx would threaten 
to close. Then it was necessary to 
keep from saying a word, and to 
keep the mouth firmly closed and 
breathe as gently as possible 
through the nose. At times there 
seemed to be a distinct alternation 



Nose. 39 

of the trouble between the nose and 
throat, for almost always when one 
organ was free the other was closed. 
Sometimes my nose would be 
stopped when in the open air, but 
would immediately open on coming 
inside, where the air was more dry. 
But if it were a day when the at- 
mosphere was at all dry, the op- 
posite was the case. After the 
sneezing had continued for a week 
or so the discharge would turn a 
greenish yellow or golden yellow, 
slimy mucus. Then, by the dry- 
ing and stopping of the anterior 
nasal canal at night, it would run 
backward through the posterior 
nares into the throat and poison 
that organ. At other times the 
nose would be open and air would 



40 Hay Fever. 

penetrate freely, but the mem- 
branes would be too dry and the 
breathing very unsatisfactory. 

Throat. 

There was always more real suf- 
fering from this source than from 
any other produced by this com- 
plaint. You will notice in speak- 
ing of the discharge from the nose, 
that I said it was of a greenish- 
yellow or golden-yellow color. Of 
these three colors it is the latter 
which is so acrid and irritating to 
the membranes of the throat and 
larynx. This always came from 
the nose in small, more or less dry 
pieces, which had a very strong, 
sharp taste and I always, during 
the latter years, knew just w r hen 



Throat. 41 

my throat would be attacked. The 
creamy-yellow or greenish mucus 
are quite neutral, the former more 
so than the latter. 

The greatest suffering is pro- 
duced through laryngeal spasm, 
which is directly due to the irritat- 
ing influence of this acrid mucus 
on the membrane of throat and its 
extension to the fine bronchioles. 
Its favorite time of attack was 
about 2 A. M., or after I had been 
sleeping for three or four hours. 
After lying down the nasal passage 
soon closed from the mucus, which 
became dry and gluey ; then it 
passed backward into the throat, 
and after being in direct contact 
with the mucous membrane of these 
parts they became irritated and 



42 Hay Fever. 

poisoned and spasm was the result. 
I would be suddenly awakened 
with a sharp cough, my throat 
would immediately , close and I 
would have to sit up in order to 
breathe. The upper part of my 
chest sounded as if it were full of 
fine stringed instruments. My 
feet would grow cold, chin would 
tremble, and as the cough grew 
more violent my throat, outside 
and in, would itch until it seemed 
I could tear it out for relief. With 
the cough there was headache, as 
if it would burst, and the throat 
would feel as if it would split. 
Mouthful after mouthful of white, 
frothy mucus would at first be ex- - 
pectorated. Later, from the terrible 
force exerted in coughing, my 



Throat. 43 

throat would become raw and the 
expectoration would be thoroughly 
mixed with blood. This would 
continue violent for an hour or 
two. 

The onset was always sudden 
and grew worse gradually but 
rapidly, and would die away gradu- 
ally but very slowly. While the 
spasm would be on me I would 
sweat profusely, and the least 
movement of the bed clothes would 
cause a chill to run over me and 
the cough to tighten, the wheezing 
would grow worse, and with it the 
cough would increase. These, 
together with the tears running 
almost a stream down my cheeks, 
head and face, wet with perspira- 
tion and underclothes soaked with 



44 Hay Fever. 

sweat, the trembling of chin and 
itching of throat, wheezing in air 
passages and incessant cough, 
makes a picture that he who suf- 
fers from one such attack will 
never, in my mind, forget. The 
whole attack, from the time of the 
first cough until I could lie down 
and remain in a recumbent posi- 
tion, during my worst season, 
varied from three to three and one- 
half to four hours. 

I was always exhausted before 
spasm would pass off, and as soon 
as breathing was relieved or relax- 
ing in bronchioles began I would 
begin to belch up wind then I 
knew positive relief was coming, 
showing I had been inhaling more 
air than I exhaled. This was in 



Throat. 45 

August, 1889. I have never suf- 
fered so severely for so long a 
period since, except in July and 
August, 1894. 

On July 4th of that year, while 
in Fairmount Park, I sat down on 
the grass for about five minutes 
watching my little girl play. Next 
day I began to feel symptoms of a 
cold in my head, which finally 
developed into a severe catarrhal 
attack in frontal sinuses and nose. 
The discharge was free and copious, 
of yellow and green mucus. It ex- 
tended into the throat and then to 
the upper bronchial tubes, and be- 
fore this was any better hay fever 
set in. This was about July 20th, 
and was soon followed by night 
sweats and exhaustion. The ca- 



46 Hay Fever. 

tarrh was going deeper on my 
chest and threatening the lnngs. 
My wife having died, a little over a 
year previous, with consumption 
did not tend to encourage me in 
the hope of recovery, and I knew if 
I should end my days with the 
latter disease it would help her 
family to believe that consumption 
was contagious, and I desired for 
that reason, if for no other, to 
regain my health. 

One day while on my way to my 
branch office, feeling so weak I 
could scarcely put one foot before 
the other, a coughing spell seized 
me, and I was forced to stop and 
lean against the bridge rail, for I 
was crossing Gray's ferry bridge 
at the time, when it ceased some- 



Throat. 47 

what. I thought to myself it's all 
up with me. I studied a minute 
or so, then concluded that if I gave 
up that would settle all ; so I pushed 
on slowly, still coughing, spitting, 
blowing my nose and wiping my 
eyes, when I finally reached my 
office. I immediately prepared 
some Calcarea phos. sixth, in a 
tumbler of water, and took a 
swallow every half hour. This I 
continued, and in three days the 
night sweats ceased and in about 
ten days the whole disease broke 
up, but I mended very slowly. My 
system became so exhausted and 
the blood so impoverished from acid 
and water that there was no reactive 
force left in my system, conse- 
quently when the cold weather 



48 Hay Fever. 

came on I could not get on clothes 
enough to keep me comfortable ; and 
with every change in the weather 
I took fresh cold , in the head, 
nose and throat, and it was not 
until the following June that I was 
myself again. I have been worse 
with hay fever, but never so low 
before or since with catarrh. 

For two seasons I suffered terri- 
bly from strangling when attempt- 
ing to drink anything, even water ; 
if it attacked me when drinking 
at meals, it would put an end to 
everything for at least an hour and 
sometimes two. My throat would 
be weak for at least twelve hours, 
and sometimes it required a night's 
rest and quiet before I was right 
again. To attempt to talk was 



Mouth. 49 

out of the question, for my throat 
would close immediately and with 
it came intense suffering. 

Mouth. 

The mouth presents no very 
special symptoms, except a very 
annoying itching of roof far back. 
When the disease is threatening, 
and sometimes before it sets in, I 
spat a great deal of slimy, acid sa- 
liva, generally more towards even- 
ing. I always knew what this 
meant. At times, and if the saliva 
is very acid, when ejected from the 
mouth it will fly all to pieces, as if 
blown through a coarse screen, 
but when not acid it will hold to- 
gether. Itching -in the ears and 

throat at the entrance of the Eus- 
4 



50 Hay Fever. 

tachian tubes, and the throat was 
sometimes very annoying. I also 
suffered from a tickling on the 
back part or dorsum of the tongue, 
but not to any great extent. The 
taste was sometimes very rank — 
coppery or brassy. At times, when 
coughing, I could detect a very 
metallic odor from throat. When 
this last condition was present I 
was in constant fear of spasm of 
the larynx, and for that reason I 
dared not utter even a word ; for if 
cold air touched that organ it and 
the bronchioles would contract and 
it would be fully an hour before I 
would be relieved. 

The symptoms given above hold 
good in all catarrhal cases, but 
vary somewhat in the pure hay 



Mouth. 51 

fever cases. For instance, in the 
latter cases there is very little 
watery discharge from the eyes; 
but the burning is so intense as to 
cause a scarlet redness low down 
under these organs, and to attempt 
to rub them simply sets them on 
fire. Again, these cases mend up 
much sooner after a frost than the 
former, for, just as soon as the air 
is purified or contracted, they are 
well again; but with the former 
class it is not so, they have a run 
down system and an ever present 
catarrhal condition to correct, 
which may continue for a longer or 
shorter period, according as the 
weather becomes wet or remains 
dry and cool. 

The reason the pure hay fever 



52 Hay Fever. 

cases have little or no slimy or mat- 
tery discharge from the eyes, but 
only a burning instead, is because 
they have no catarrh of the frontal 
sinuses. They suffer with a flow 
of tears during the attacks of laryn- 
geal spasms, but these are seldom 
of an acrid nature. 

During the attacks of hay fever 
the bowels were always more or 
less constipated, the stools either 
dark, dry and hard or dark, hard 
and slimed over. The stomach gets 
very sluggish and the smell of food 
cooking most always destroys the 
appetite. At times the urine was 
very albuminous and generally 
very yellow or like dog's urine, at 
other times quite profuse and 
lighter in color and more watery. 



Treatment. 53 



TREATMENT. 

This undoubtedly will be of 
much more importance to the ma- 
jority of physicians, and especially 
the suffering public, than the cause, 
but without a thorough knowledge 
of the former the latter will not be 
very successful. I have stated 
above that there is a decrease of 
oxygen going to the blood. This 
means an increase of acids and 
water. What we must do, then, 
is to make up for this lack of 
oxygen, and the only way it can be 
accomplished is by giving a drug 
which will hold the blood in con- 
traction ; or, in other words, we 
must neutralize the acid in the 



54 Hay Fever. 

blood, and render it non-irritating 
to the membranes. Iron is the 
greatest blood contractor there is, 
and probably the greatest blood 
tonic, unless equalled by Chloride 
sodcz. If the air is dry there will 
be sufficient iron generated in the 
system to contract this fluid. The 
chlorides and sulphates are the 
greatest blood neutralizes, except 
Iron, which has the double action, 
or is both a neutralizer and con- 
tractor, and when these salts are 
present in the blood in sufficient 
quantity acid cannot be generated. 
If either of these salts are lacking 
in this fluid and the deficiency not 
soon corrected disease in one of its 
many forms presents itself and 



Treatment. 55 

continues until the amount gener- 
ated in the system is normal again. 
If these minerals are in the blood 
in sufficient quantity, and there 
should from any cause be a dim- 
inution of some other one of the 
blood's salts, it will generally be 
corrected through the harmonious 
action of these three. I do not 
mean that all we have to do when 
we meet a case of hay fever is to 
give the patient a prescription of 
iron or salt, as the case may be, for 
you will require many other reme- 
dies besides these; in fact, these 
two are as a drop in the bucket 
compared with the number you 
may require ; but you must keep 
just one thought in your mind 
when treating these cases, and that 



56 Hay Fever. 

is to give the remedy which will in 
your mind, and from the symptoms 
present, neutralize the acid; and 
unless you can do this you will 
accomplish very little except, per- 
haps, give temporary relief by 
stimulation. 

Now as to the acid, whether it is 
lactic or oxalic, or muriatic or some 
other, or a combination of two or 
more of these acids that are known 
to be in the blood at different times, 
I know not ; but I have treated my 
own case as if it were the first 
named, and I have good reasons to 
think it is due to it. 

Neither physiologists nor chem- 
ists state whether it requires any 
particular kind of acid to relax the 
blood or whether all acids have this 



Treatment. 57 

action in common. If my attacks 
came from lactic acid, then I as- 
sume that all the regular catarrhal 
cases are caused by this same acid. 
But just whether it would be safe to 
claim all the purely simple hay 
fever cases are due to this same 
acid might be a question. I am 
strongly inclined to the belief that 
this acid is at the bottom of the 
trouble, perhaps combined with 
some other already in the blood or 
generated from lack of oxygen at 
that season. 

If the annual sufferers, when 
they feel the first symptoms of this 
disease, will resort to purgative 
medicine — and for this purpose 
nothing acts so well as Epsom 
salts — this will reduce the amount 



58 Hay Fever. 

of water and acid in the glandular 
secretions better than any other 
remedy. The sulphate of soda or 
phosphate of soda may take its 
place and answer very well in some 
cases. The latter is rather mild 
in its action, and scarcely meets 
the demand unless a full dose is 
taken (an ounce or an ounce and a 
half). The first named acts 
quickly, will give beneficial results, 
and if followed with the proper 
remedy the acid will be neutralized 
and blood contracted ; and the 
patient will remain pretty good for 
some time unless the weather is 
uncommonly sultry and oppress- 
ive. But if this disease is to be 
prevented, the patient should be 
given a mild preparation of iron 



Treatment. 59 

for at least two or three months 
previous to his attack, and continue 
it in small doses all through the 
season, and get his system in 
proper condition and get the blood 
up to its normal standard. This 
can be accomplished if he persists 
in the tonic and the proper remedy 
for his bodily ailments. 

The best preparation of iron I 
have thus far discovered is Hensel's 
physiological tonicum. I took five 
bottles myself last season, and with 
the proper remedy, which in my 
case was Mercurtus cor., I got 
through safely, although I did not 
begin to take the tonic until after 
the beginning of July, when I lost 
my appetite and thought something 
had to be done. I took about a 



60 Hay Fever. 

teaspoonful in a tumbler of water 
sweetened with three good tea- 
spoonfuls of sugar, and repeated it 
four or five times a day. My ap- 
petite returned, I improved rapidly. 
The remedy may be Merc, cor., 
especially if the patient is a catar- 
rhal subject, or this remedy in 
alternation with Ferrum met., or 
if he is subject to that form of 
catarrh which affects the bone 
tissue he may require Cal. fluor. 
or Aurum met. If he has had 
odor from catarrh no remedy can 
equal the former for that condition. 
I have found patients who can- 
not take the tonicum in the dose 
mentioned above, and if I am sure 
it is iron they require I have them 
take it in three or five drop doses 



Treatment. 61 

in a little water, with or without 
sugar as suits them best. I 
have also' taken the phosphate of 
iron, but not with any appreciable 
results ; but have no doubt it 
would produce good results in the 
tall, slender, bloodless subjects. 
Pepto inangan is a splendid prep- 
aration of this much-needed salt, 
and will meet the requirements in 
a great many cases. Simple syrup 
of wheat phosphate also contains a 
trace of iron, and is an excellent 
tonic and tissue builder, especially 
for the young and growing sub- 
jects, and a good tonic for the 
winter or cold weather if there is 
loss of appetite ; but in the hot 
weather we all require the iron to 
make up for lack of oxygen and 



62 Hay Fever. 

to keep the blood in contraction. 
I never prescribed for my patients 
the size dose given on bottles, but 
invariably reduce the amount one- 
half or two-thirds ; then they can 
increase as they see its necessity, 
but very few will do so without 
being advised. The purgatives 
should be taken at least twice a 
week in order to keep the amount 
of water reduced as much as pos- 
sible. The Epsom salts I mention 
as the best for this purpose and 
will not leave the patient consti- 
pated afterwards. There is manu- 
factured a bella-aloin and strych- 
tablets which I have used with 
good results frequently in place of 
the salts. 

Those who anticipate an attack 



Treatment. 63 

should also take a hot salt bath 
at least twice a week. This can be 
prepared in the following manner : 
Add two and a half or three pounds 
of rock salt, or, if this cannot be 
had, nse common salt, in a gallon 
of water and allow it to come to a 
boil ; then add this to about three 
or four buckets of cool or previously 
heated water ; before mixing these 
the patient should be ready for the 
bath, so the vapor can come di- 
rectly in ^contact with the surface 
of body, and as soon as the water 
is cool enough to permit he should 
get in and remain for fifteen to 
twenty minutes. The underclothes 
he intends wearing should be hung 
in the room, so they can get as 
much of the salt vapor as possible 



64 Hay Fever. 

without becoming too damp. These 
baths should be taken preferably 
at bedtime, and the patient, after 
drying himself lightly, can retire 
and get a good night's rest and feel 
much refreshed the next morning. 
If the patients are weak, a light 
sponge bath as hot as can be borne, 
every other night, should suffice, 
or if such a patient is at the sea- 
shore he need not take a bath at 
all, and really should not, for in- 
haling the salt air is sufficient. No 
person suffering with this disease 
at the seashore should take a 
bath oftener than once in four days 
at most. I tried taking one every 
other day during a short stay at 
Cape May, and the result was I re- 
turned home much worse after two 



Treatment. 65 

weeks than I was before I went 
away. While in the bath the pa- 
tient should snuff the salt water up 
the nose and bathe the eyes thor- 
oughly. The salt water will cleanse 
all the cavities and passages better 
than anything that can be applied 
locally ; in fact, it is the only local 
application that I ever derived any 
relief from, but it must be used 
cautiously. I mean it should not 
be used except very weak, if it is 
to be used every day or several 
times a day. For myself I prefer 
to use it the same strength as for 
bathing, and only at those times. 
Salt water used too frequently pro- 
duces a glossy condition on the 
surface of the membranes, which is 

not a good effect, as it prevents a 
5 



66 Hay Fever. 

free action of the atmosphere upon 
those surfaces. 

The pernicious habit of using 
the various local nostrums and 
quack mixtures locally on the del- 
icate membrane of the nose and 
throat cannot be too strongly con- 
demned. For this reason, if for no 
other, this disease comes from the 
blood, and the cause is in that fluid 
absolutely and can only be reached 
by remedies acting directly on the 
blood either as contractors, or neu- 
tralizes, or both ; and for still an- 
other reason, these local applica- 
tions all to a greater or less extent 
weaken the membranes and leave 
them more susceptible to catarrhal 
attacks from cold. In my own 
case I used at first a few local 



Treatment. 67 

washes, and always suffered worse 
for my folly. Finally I stopped 
everything except salt water when 
I took my baths, or, if the nose was 
sore, I resorted to petroleum jelly 
or something similar. Vaseline I 
found was too light and drying. 

The habit of eating a hearty 
meal at supper time is a sure way 
to induce a night of suffering. 
The patient will be oppressed and 
stuffy and will not get relief be- 
fore two or three o'clock A. M., and 
this same imprudence is a strong 
factor in bringing on the throat 
and chest spasms. It never seemed 
to help matters any if four or five 
hours elapsed between the eating 
of supper and the time I retired, 
for the stomach acts much slower 



68 Hay Fever. 

in hot weather than in cold ; be- 
sides this same acidity permeates 
the gastric juices as well as the 
other secretions, and by diluting 
weakens them. I found in my 
own case that I got along much 
better by living principally on* 
soups, with bread and butter and 
coffee ; such soups as cream tomato, 
oyster, clam chowder, vegetable, 
etc., for dinner. For supper I ate 
bread and butter, or milk toast, or 
boiled ^ggj with coffee. Coffee is 
undoubtedly a great acid neutral- 
izes I seldom drank less than 
two medium-sized cupfuls at each 
meal, and always felt better from 
it. The workingman or laborer 
will most likely require a stronger 
diet, and requires meat, so I say to 



Treatment. 69 

him if it is possible to do so to eat 
pork, or for a change eat lamb or 
mutton. Beef or veal, so far as 
my own observation goes, simply 
increases the cause of our trouole. 
For this reason just as soon as the 
flesh is deprived of life the juice of 
the meat, or muscle juice, as we 
call it, becomes acid. This is the 
first chemical change that takes 
place in all dead flesh, and the first 
change towards putrefaction. Beef 
containing more juice than any 
other kind of meat of which we 
partake, and this juice being 
charged with acid, most undoubt- 
edly acts as an irritant. Pork, on 
the other hand, containing very 
little meat juice but abundance of 
lard oil, and this oil being com- 



70 Hay Fever. 

posed of stearin, margarin, and 
glycerine, and each of these in- 
gredients being powerful absorb- 
ents of oxygen, proves that lard 
oil acts as a stimulant and heat 
producer to keep the body warm, 
and this in turn aids to keep the 
system contracted. 

Fleshy persons, as a rule, suffer 
very little from atmospherical 
changes compared with the lean or 
acid individuals. Mutton contains 
a very small amount of meat juice, 
and is a good meat for summer. 
Fish meat being of a dry nature is 
probably harmless, or if it contains 
phosphorus, as has been stated, 
then we should eat more of it, espe- 
cially during the summer season. 
Poultry is quite dry, especially the 



Treatment. 71 

white meat, and quite safe. Meats 
of all kinds should be thoroughly 
cooked for catarrhal or hay fever 
patients, and in this way most of 
the acid juice can be gotten out by 
evaporation. The late Dr. Urie 
advised his patients suffering with 
consumption to eat beef prepared 
in the following manner : First boil 
thoroughly, then lay it in the oven 
until it becomes perfectly dry ; 
when this was accomplished it was 
to be grated fine and salted to suit 
the taste. Meat prepared in this 
manner I found was relished and 
seemed to nourish the weakened 
condition of my wife's stomach 
when suffering with consumption. 
I also ate it myself when I had 
hay fever, and thought it did me 



72 Hay Fever. 

good. I mention this because some 
hay fever patients lose their appe- 
tite for meat in any form, and in 
order to combat this disease the 
sufferer must keep up his strength 
during the hot and sultry weather. 
Eggs, either raw or poached, are 
very beneficial, but if they cannot 
be taken in this manner then they 
should be eaten soft boiled, or fried, 
or in form of an omelet. 

Among the numerous beverages 
used to allay the thirst, which at 
times is very pronounced on ac- 
count of the internal fever pro- 
duced by this disease, I found the 
Physiological tonicum and plain 
soda or Vichy water the best. The 
former can be taken as directed 
above, every two or three hours. 



Climate. 73 

Sarsaparilla, ginger ale, or plain 
water boiled and placed in bottles 
and allowed to lay along side of 
ice to cool will be found grateful. 
Ice water should never be taken, 
because of the local irritation it is 
likely to produce on the surface. 

CLIMATE. 

Its Effects ; Who Should Go 
to the Seashore and Who 
Should Seek the 
Mountains. 
The catarrhal plus hay fever 
subject, because he suffers with 
ulcerations, festering, etc., in the 
bones and soft parts of the nose or 
frontal sinuses, with muco-puru- 
lent or a yellow or greenish mat- 
tery discharge, requires the chlor- 



74 Hay Fever. 

ides and sulphates, and these can 
be obtained through nature at the 
seashore, and applied more directly 
to the blood and with better results 
than can be obtained if taken 
through the mouth and stomach in 
the form of drugs. These salts, 
while they have the power of neu- 
tralizing the acid in the blood, and 
through it all the other secretions, 
thereby stopping all the sneezing 
and other disagreeable symptoms 
produced by hay fever, do not have 
the power to contract this fluid. If 
it could make a whole cure instead 
of only creating half a one, as it 
does, the patients who seek its 
effects might remain well for some 
time after returning to their homes. 
But as it is, they only remain ap- 



Climate. 75 

parently cured, while they are right 
in the midst of it and getting the 
whole influence of this over salt 
charged atmosphere, for as soon as 
they are a few miles away from the 
shore the air becomes diluted, and 
they begin to sneeze, and all their 
old complaints return again. With 
the simple hay fever subject it is 
quite different. He suffers but 
once a year ; his trouble is a purely 
local one. His condition is per- 
haps normal, or nearly so, up to 
within a week or two previous to 
the attack. His general health be- 
ing unimpaired, but as soon as the 
atmosphere becomes sufficiently 
humid the stomach becomes slug- 
gish, the bowels perhaps consti- 
pated, and the trouble is on him 



76 Hay Fever. 

immediately. What he requires is 
a drier atmosphere or a little 
more oxygen. This can be ob- 
tained in the mountains. These 
patients will seldom, if ever, be 
improved at the seashore. It is not 
chlorides nor sulphates their sys- 
tems are crying for, but iron ; and 
as soon as they get the necessary 
increase of oxygen the iron is soon 
supplied, and this in turn absorb- 
ing more oxygen from the atmos- 
phere quickly contracts the blood 
back to its normal condition and 
the cure is effected. 

Now while these latter, as I 
have stated above, will not be bene- 
fited at the seashore, the former or 
catarrhal cases will be relieved at 
either place, but undoubtedly much 



Climate. 77 

more quickly at the shore. The 
mountain air would produce a cure 
in the following manner : By first 
supplying an increase of oxygen, 
thereby generating the necessary 
gases to produce iron, and this in 
turn absorbing a greater amount of 
oxygen, and by so doing it causes 
the contraction of the blood, and by 
contracting it renders it neutral ; 
then as soon as this latter is ac- 
complished all the other secretions 
and fluids are neutralized imme- 
diately. 

As soon as the blood has received 
its proper amount of oxygen and 
iron to bring it up to its normal 
standard we have pure blood. This 
pure fluid passing through and 
permeating every gland and tissue 



78 Hay Fever. 

of the living body acts as a tonic, 
a stimulant and a true disinfectant 
to every organ and tissue, and 
under these conditions it is simply 
impossible for this form of disease 
to exist. 

On account of the dampness of 
the atmosphere in this climate our 
lung expansion on ordinary in- 
spiration is very little more than 
two-thirds its full capacity, or, in 
other words, instead of being from 
three to three and one-half inches 
on full inspiration it seldom reaches 
beyond two or two and one-half 
inches. On this account our physi- 
ologists tell us we have a certain 
amount of residual air in our lungs 
continually. Taking this for 
granted, then it must follow that 



Climate. 79 

we have more or less poisonous 
gas in our lungs all the time, 
which must prove to be a strong 
predisposing factor to catarrhal 
diseases of these and other organs. 
On the other hand, the rarefied 
or very dry atmosphere of Colorado 
and some parts of Mexico and the 
higher mountain regions acts quite 
the opposite, the atmosphere be- 
ing so highly charged with oxygen 
and so dry that persons entering 
those climates from one more damp 
can scarcely breathe, and literally 
gasp for their breath until the 
lungs can be gradually forced to a 
fuller dilatation to meet the increas- 
ing demands of respiration. This 
demand is brought about by the 
blood absorbing the free oxygen so 



80 Hay Fever. 

quickly and disseminating it 
through the system. 

As soon as an increase of oxygen 
is given to the blood all the other 
salts are increased, and especially 
iron, showing that the latter salt is 
almost wholly dependent on the 
former, for its life in the blood 
and the oxygen-absorbing powers 
of the iron, together with the in- 
creased activity in the circulation 
of the blood, brings greater de- 
mands for increased lung capacity 
for the purifying of this fluid nec- 
essary to hold it in contraction. 
The relation of all our organs are 
so situated physiologically that 
each one is literally dependent on 
the other if health is to be kept at 
its normal status. On account of 



Remedies. 81 

the lungs being forced to their full 
expansion, we seldom meet per- 
sons in the dry climates hollow or 
weak chested, but on the contrary 
they are full chested and walk 
erect. 

REMEDIES. 

On account of the cause of this 
disease being an acid, and being 
seated in the blood and its differ- 
ent effects in different systems, 
there can never be found a specific 
for this ailment. While I am quite 
positive the remedy that will break 
up the attack will almost invariably 
be found among the minerals, still 
no one mineral remedy will ever 
be sufficient to cure every case. I 
also consider the question of 



82 Hay Fever. 

potency in the treatment of this 
disease a very important one. 
Each time the disease was broken 
np in my own case it was accom- 
plished with the medium or higher 
attenuations. The first attack was 
with Aurum met. 30th dilution. Sec- 
ond time with Kali sulph. 5 m. The 
last season I suffered I took Merc. 
cor. I2x, and last summer and this 
winter I have taken it in the 
thirtieth dilution. I have taken it 
this winter in the third trituration 
with no results ; then I got it in 
the sixth dilution and took it for a 
couple of days, adding ten drops 
to a tumbler two-thirds full of 
water; dose, a small swallow every 
half hour when I was in the office, 



Remedies. 83 

but this did not give anything like 
the results the thirtieth did. 

Here is something I wish to 
mention in regard to the action of 
Merc. cor. on acids. Before Christ- 
mas of this year I was troubled a 
great deal with cankers and sore- 
ness and slight burning of the 
tongue. It struck me that if I 
would eat a certain amount of 
sugar every day that it might 
cure the trouble, so I purchased 
some good candy and began to eat 
a small quantity two or three times 
a day. The result began to show 
itself the next day, for the trouble 
lessened and in three days was all 
gone, but the candy was not ; and 
when it did give out I purchased 
more and continued to eat, and I 



84 Hay Fever. 

am sure I increased the amount I 
ate each day, but it was not very 
many days before the trouble came 
back again. My tongue began to 
burn and the right side, about one 
inch from the end, got quite sore. 
I stopped the candy and took two 
or three doses of Merc. cor. thirtieth 
dilution, when it all passed away. 
Well, I concluded I had proved the 
sugar, but was not fully satisfied, 
so next day I ate a little more 
candy and immediately the burn- 
ing returned, and with it the sore- 
ness again. I took the same 
remedy with the same results. 
The third day I tried the candy 
again and the symptoms returned 
as before, so I waited a couple of 
hours to see if it would grow worse ; 



Remedies. 85 

and I was not disappointed, for my 
tongue got real sore and the burn- 
ing increased, with the results that 
I had to take my Merc. cor. all the 
next day, when I was in the office, 
before I got very much relief. 
This justifies me in thinking this 
remedy an extraordinary one for 
the hyperacidity of gastric juices 
and saliva so often met with in the 
catarrhal cases, and in children 
after eating to excess of candy. 
The remedies mentioned here, with 
their several symptoms, are the 
ones I have used with best results 
in my own and other cases. In 
my estimation, Merc. cor. stands in 
the same relation to the catarrhal 
plus hay fever cases as Arsenicum 
tod. does to the simple hay fever 



86 Hay Fever. 

ones. The remedies will be given 
as their importance is considered. 
Mercurius cor. — Nose stuffy ; 
discharge tough, sticky ; posterior 
nares stopped up and also stuffy 
at bridge of nose. At times it will 
be perfectly closed, but there will 
be a clear, bland, warm, watery dis- 
charge. This may be acrid, irri- 
tating the inner nose and produc- 
ing an inclination to sneeze or 
violent sneezing. The complexion 
becomes sallow or dirty. Ophthal- 
mia, with acrid, smarting, irritat- 
ing watery discharge, mixed with 
yellow, irritating, acrid mucus ; 
edges of lids get crusty, become 
glued together at night. Discharge 
from the nose may be yellow, 
creamy matter, golden yellow color, 



Remedies. 87 

greenish, slimy, acrid, biting the 
tongue and lips if hawked from 
the throat; very often when the 
mucus is coughed up there will be 
present a distinct brassy odor from 
the throat, and the mucus will 
have a decided metallic taste. The 
saliva is very acrid; at times it will 
bite and smart the tongue and lips. 
At times the tongue w T ill burn. 
The saliva, when very acrid, if 
ejected from the mouth, will sepa- 
rate in a spray, but when there is 
no acidity it will hold together. 
The finger nails turn gray or yel- 
low and have a dead look, and are 
very brittle and break easily {Kalz 
card.). 

Dyspnoea so great patient can 
scarcely speak. If at these times 



88 Hay Fever. 

the patient opens his mouth to 
utter a word, and the cool air 
touches the larynx, spasm of this 
organ and smaller bronchial tubes 
threatens immediately {Kali card.). 
Strings of mucus form from the 
inner to the outer canthus of the 
eyes, which is very acrid and irri- 
tates the balls, causing terrible 
annoyance until removed. Starts 
suddenly on falling asleep. Con- 
siderable thirst at times. I got 
the best results from this remedy 
when I took it in the twelfth di- 
lution, about fifteen or twenty drops 
in a tumblerful of water ; dose, a 
small swallow every half hour. 
This remedy being a combination 
of Sodium chloride, Sulphuric acid 
and Mercury, and these each be- 



Remedies. 89 

ing acid neutralizers when given 
in minute doses, I think justifies 
me in terming it the greatest acid 
neutralizer we possess when given 
in the twelfth to thirtieth dilution 
for catarrh of the head accompany- 
ing hay fever. 

Kali carb. — Sense of smell di- 
minished ; catarrh of nose, with 
golden yellow or green discharge ; 
nose always closed while indoors 
and almost always open as soon as 
patient goes in open air, only to 
close again if he returns indoors ; 
patient either hawks from throat 
or blows from nose small pieces of 
scabs of golden yellow or rust color, 
which are very strong or acrid tast- 
ing, or else drops of dirty, ichorous 
mucus, which is very irritating 



90 Hay Fever. 

when hawked from the throat or 
blown from the nose ; this is some- 
times mattery in appearance. As 
long as this condition is present 
there is a liability of spasms at 
night, and the same danger is 
present dnring the daytime, bnt 
not to the same extent, for the 
sufferer can keep it from collecting 
and being in direct contact with 
the membranes for any great 
length of time. Spasm of larynx 
and bronchioles about 2 A. M., 
beginning with cough ; then feet 
grow cold and clammy, followed by 
shortness of breath and wheezing ; 
cough more violent, with expec- 
toration of mouthful s of frothy, 
slimy, ropy and greenish mucus. 
This remedy, in alternation with 



Remedies. 91 

the preceding one, will prevent 
these attacks. Patient has to 
breathe with mouth closed and 
chin on the chest, and breathe 
very gently ; eyes sore in the cor- 
ners ; lids swollen in the morning; 
lachrymation ; photophobia worse 
from sunlight or artificial light ; 
eyes weak; hawks up scabs from 
the throat; strangles when at- 
tempting to drink even a swallow 
of water ; ears closed, with crack- 
ing first in one and then in the 
other; spasmodic sneezing, as 
often as twenty times without in- 
termission ; dryness in the throat, 
with thirst; feels as if cannot 
breathe deep enough; wheezing 
after slight cough ; very stuffy all 
day and evening, and fear of spasm ; 



92 Hay Fever. 

nose closed at night. On account 
of the acid destroying the oil in 
the sebaceous gland of the scalp 
the hair loses its lustre and soft- 
ness, becomes dry and dies, then it 
breaks off and falls. This remedy, 
continued in the sixth dilution or 
higher, will correct this trouble. 

Natrum carb. — Nose stopped 
worse at night ; loss of smell and 
taste ; sneezing worse at night, 
with watery discharge ; sneezing 
worse when nose is stopped up, 
but without relief; after sneezing 
the nose feels very stuify; dis- 
charge is yellow or green, but not 
so irritating as in the preceding 
remedy, but is hawked up from 
the throat more freely in the morn- 
ing, and is not so tough and 



Remedies. 93 

seldom, if ever, in lumps or scabs, 
except when blown from the nose, 
which is sometimes sore at the 
bridge; sensation of down or 
feathers before the eyes and on 
the lashes, which cannot be wiped 
away ; eyes very dim, with stitch- 
ing pain in them, or as if very fine 
needles were piercing through 
them from within outward ; sixth 
dilution. 

Calcarea phos. — If the attack be- 
gins with heat and sweating of 
back of head and neck or general 
night sweats ; sensation of feathers 
or down on eyelashes, which can 
be wiped away, but will return 
again; lashes feel as if crossed; 
eyeballs feel hot and ache; nasal 
symptoms are generally better in 



94 Hay Fever. 

a warm room ; bowels are generally 
constipated, with rumbling of gas 
in them and passing of flatulence 
and urging to stool from pressure 
on rectum; haemorrhoids, with 
spasmodic contraction of sphincter 
ani, worse at 12 o'clock; hawks 
tough, white mucus from the 
throat ; discharge from nose is gen- 
erally thick and yellow, but not 
irritating. This remedy will prove 
curative, used mostly in twelfth 
dilution. 

Glonozne. — In the beginning, 
when there is a rush of blood to 
the brain, with great heat of the 
head, with sweating day and night 
and sneezing, as if taking fresh 
colds all the time ; if there is any 
cough present it jars and hurts the 



Remedies. 95 

head ; the eye symptoms are similar 
to the preceding remedy ; with the 
sneezing there is always a watery, 
non-irritating discharge ; the ears 
feel fnll and almost closed ; sensa- 
tion in the head as if every- 
thing was jammed together. This 
remedy, given in the twelfth dilu- 
tion, with the above symptom, will 
never fail to give relief and prevent 
a great deal of suffering that no 
other remedy I know of can do. I 
have repeated the dose every fif- 
teen minutes when the cough was 
troublesome and caused headache 
from the concussion. It will al- 
most always give good results in 
the beginning of catarrhal cold at 
any season of the year. Headache 
from cough mostly in back of head ; 



96 Hay Fever. 

headache in front of head; eyes 
suffused and watery. 

Magnesia phos. — This is un- 
doubtedly the best remedy we pos- 
sess at the present time to prevent 
threatening spasms from matur- 
ing, or to relax the same when it 
has already set in, whether these 
occur during the daytime or at 
night in bed. If the weather has 
been very sultry during the day 
and the patient has been very 
stuffy and oppressed, with short, 
anxious breathing, he can safely 
predict a spasm during the night, 
even though he has managed to 
escape one during the day. Under 
these conditions he should take 
this remedy every hour during the 
day, dry, and during the evening 



Remedies. 97 

he should take from six to twelve 
doses in hot water, prepared in the 
following manner : Fill a pint 
pitcher full of water as hot as he 
can drink ; add to this fifteen or 
twenty drops of the sixth, twelfth 
or twentieth dilution — the latter 
two strengths are the ones I have 
used oftenest, and with just as 
rapid and good results. I am posi- 
tive I have prevented spasms at 
night in a number of instances in 
my own case by taking Kali carb. 
and Merc. cor. every half hour or 
hour, alternately during the day 
and the former in the evening 
until bedtime, as mentioned above ; 
dose, a swallow every fifteen min- 
utes or half hour. If spasm de- 
velops during the night, have some 



98 Hay Fever. 

of the remedy prepared as above 
and take a couple of swallows as liot 
as lie can, at first as often as every 
ten minutes, and as, he feels better 
gradually lengthen interval to 
twenty minutes or a half hour. 
As soon as belching begins the pa- 
tient can feel assured that perma- 
nent relief for the time is assured. 
Buzzing in the ears, with dulness 
of hearing ; loss of smell ; smart- 
ing in the nose ; dropping of mucus 
from posterior nares into the 
throat ; sensation of choking or 
feeling of suffocation in throat; 
spasm of glottis ; shooting or sting- 
ing pains in the head, shifting 
from one place to another, with 
sparks before the eyes and dull 
vision ; eyelids twitch ; eyes sensi- 



Remedies. 99 

tive to light. There may also be 
constipation. All the symptoms 
of this remedy are better or im- 
proved from warmth or hot appli- 
cations ; therefore it shonld always 
be taken in hot water whenever 
possible. 

Arsenicum tod. — E yes itch, 
smart and bnrn ; lids are red and 
feel dry ; at times the redness ex- 
tends far down nnder the eyes and 
on the cheeks, and looks as if 
patient had been rubbing them or 
as after crying. The more severe 
the burning the better this remedy 
is indicated. Eyes weak, with feel- 
ing as if lachrymation would set 
in ; discharge most always thin, 
watery, hot, acrid and burning, 
worse when out of doors ; violent 

L.ofC. 



100 Hay Fever. 

attack of sneezing, with soreness 
of the nose, which at times gets 
very red and swollen ; eyelids be- 
come cedematous ; face pale, sal- 
low or earthy color ; sclerotica yel- 
lowish ; itching and smarting of 
the eyes ; spasms at night. 

Apis mel. — Burning, stinging, 
smarting or fine shooting pains in 
the eyes, which may be congested, 
or the lids may be oedematons. 
While this remedy will invariably 
relieve all the above symptoms in 
a few seconds when taken in the 
one-thonsandth dilution, I never 
received any further improvement 
from its continued use It is the 
only remedy I have found that 
will stop the fine pin and needle 
pains, and it always acts instantly. 



Remedies. 101 

Kali sul. — Yellow or green, 
slimy, watery discharge from nose, 
hawking same from throat; coughs 
up slimy mucus from throat, but 
it slips down again before it can be 
expectorated ; head feels as if it 
were full of drain pipes and every 
one was dripping with this yellow, 
slimy, juicy water. This same 
slimy or juicy water can be 
squeezed from the nose by press- 
ing that organ between the thumb 
and forefinger from the bridge 
downwards, and in appearance 
looks like the juice squeezed from 
a piece of beef on a soft, muggy 
wet or rainy morning, when we 
say the meat looks sick ; nose ob- 
structed ; dry catarrh ; dryness of 
the lips — they become crusty and 



102 Hay Fever. 

scale off ; burning in the mouth, 
which sometimes is slimy ; patient 
is always better in the open or 
cool air ; scalp full of dandruff, 
which falls profusely from brush- 
ing the hair ; yellow or greenish, 
slimy, watery discharge from the 
eyes, or it may be very mattery 
and glue the lids together during 
the night ; there may be thirst and 
burning in the stomach, or in the 
stomach and bowels. I have seen 
the latter symptoms verified on 
numerous occasions when this rem- 
edy was indicated ; in fact, it is a 
true keynote to its indication. I 
use it in the thirtieth and higher 
dilutions. 

Nux vomica. — This is a good 
remedy for hay fever when there 



Remedies. 103 

is gastric trouble complicated with 
constipation, when the patient feels 
very stuffy after meals ; the nose 
is stopped up ; after supper he 
feels generally stuffed full ; blows 
watery or thick mucus like the 
white of egg from the nose ; feels 
weak in the knees ; pain in the 
eyes or dizzy feeling in the head ; 
tongue coated, with bitter taste or 
sticky feeling in the mouth. Head- 
ache worse from thinking. 

Three years ago a Mr. H. came 
to my office one evening so smoth- 
ered he could scarcely answer my 
questions. I gave him Kali carb. 
and Mag.phos. in alternation every 
hour, except at night. He was to 
take the latter in hot water. He 
got along all right while the med- 



104 Hay Fever. 

icine lasted ; then the spasms re- 
turned at night. He got another 
prescription and took it with the 
same results. After the season 
was over he stopped coming for 
medicine and I saw very little of 
him until the next August, when 
he was again attacked, but re- 
mained away, trying first one 
remedy and then another that his 
friends suggested, until finally I 
was sent for one morning at two 
A. m. to come as soon as possible, 
for he was smothering to death. I 
found him sitting on a chair w T ith 
nothing on except his shirt and 
pants, with his bare feet on the 
bare floor and the room quite cold. 
I had his feet dressed, then began 
giving him Magnesia phos. twelfth, 



Remedies. 105 

in hot water, every five minutes, 
and in fifteen minutes lie began to 
be relieved. Then I told him that 
if he would continue to take med- 
icine and get his stomach and 
bowels corrected I felt sure he 
could be cured, as I found he was 
very costive at that time and had 
been for several weeks. I warned 
him against eating heavy suppers. 
He had no more severe attacks 
that season, and got over the dis- 
ease sooner than he had in pre- 
vious years. During 1900 he took 
medicine occasionally for his stom- 
ach and bowels, and was feeling 
pretty well generally most of the 
time. One day during hay fever 
season I met him, and asked how 
he was feeling ; his answer was, 



106 Hay Fever. 

" Tip top." " Well," I said, " you 
had better take a little preventa- 
tive treatment or you may be 
knocked out one of these days ;" 
but he said, " I am not going to 
have it this year for I am now 
three weeks over my time, and my 
bowels are regular, my stomach is 
good, and this is the first season in 
twenty years that I have gone over 
my regular time for the attack." 
About ten days after this, about 
nine o'clock in the evening, I was 
sent for to come as soon as possi- 
ble, as father was suffering very 
much. I found him coughing as on 
previous occasions, with tears 
streaming down his cheeks, pain 
in the throat and chest, with super- 
ficial breathing which was quite 



Remedies. 107 

labored; in fact, a real picture of 
distress. The same remedy was 
given with immediate relief. On 
questioning I learned that his 
bowels had been constipated for 
some time, and that he had eaten a 
hearty supper about five o'clock, 
which had undoubtedly occasioned 
this attack. Before departing I 
left orders for him to call or send 
to my office the next morning and 
get a prescription and prevent fur- 
ther trouble. I gave him Magnesia 
-phos. twelfth, and Nux vomica 
third on pellets ; dose every two 
hours alternately. He never had 
another spasm, the whole trouble 
breaking up with this one attack. 

This fully justifies the assump- 
tion that not only the spasms but 



108 Hay Fever. 

the whole malady can be superin- 
duced through inactivity of the 
bowels and stomach in those who 
annually suffer from its attacks. 
One of my greatest difficulties in 
my own case is to keep my bowels 
regular, for as soon as they become 
at all sluggish my head and eyes 
grow worse. So I say again to the 
sufferer, keep the stomach and 
bowels acting, but don't purge the 
latter to excess. 

Ferrum tod. and Ferrum sul. — 
Iron, being the greatest absorbent 
of oxygen of any chemical salt 
contained in the blood and the 
greatest blood nutrient and con- 
tractor, and the oxygen being at 
the same time the life of the iron, 
it is easy to understand why this 



Remedies. 109 

mineral salt should be an indis- 
pensable remedy in the treatment 
of this disease in both classes. 
The former is especially adapted 
to the pure hay fever cases, but 
either preparation might be called 
for in the catarrhal form, but in 
my opinion they should not be 
given lower than the two-hundredth 
dilution. 

I took the latter in the thirtieth 
dilution for a catarrhal cold last 
January with the following symp- 
toms : Blowing yellow-greenish 
mucus from the nose and coughing 
up the same from my throat, with 
sneezing ; mucus was quite slimy, 
but not acrid. It gave me relief, 
but before I got well I took a fresh 
cold and was forced to take another 



110 Hay Fever. 

remedy. The former I have never 
used, but from what we know of 
those remedies when given singly 
I feel it commends itself to us at 
once as a sovereign remedy in this 
disease. I have not been able to 
find any proving of this drug, but 
will try and get clinical evidence 
the coming season. 

Arsenicum alb. — This remedy I 
have taken and given on numerous 
occasions, and always with good 
results. The indications calling 
for its employment are so similar 
to those calling for the Arsenicum 
tod. that it is not necessary to 
enumerate them here. 

During the first year I practiced 
in Maryland a lady came to me, 
suffering in August, to find out 



Remedies. Ill 

what ailed her and to get medicine 
for the tronble. It was her first 
attack and she had it to perfection. 
She said she was sneezing all the 
time ; her nose was sore from 
wiping ; her eyes were itching 
and burning and almost setting 
her wild; her head was aching; 
some of the time she could scarcely 
breathe, and at night she had 
spasms and was afraid she would 
die unless she got relief immedi- 
ately. I told her she had hay 
fever and could keep me company, 
but I felt sure I could cure her. 
I gave her Arsenicum, two-hun- 
dredth dilution, and Kali carb., the 
sixth, to be put in water ; dose, a 
teaspoonful every half hour in 
alternation. This broke the dis- 



112 Hay Fever. 

ease completely, but I had her 
continue treatment for catarrh of 
the head and nose until the follow- 
ing Christmas. The following 
two seasons I practiced there she 
missed the attacks. This lady 
was the w 7 ife of a well-to-do farmer 
and had all the advantages of fresh 
air, pure water, etc., and hers, like 
my own and numberless other 
cases, was simply as I have stated 
before, an aggravated condition of 
a certain form of catarrh due to 
oppressiveness of the atmosphere 
from lack of oxygen at that par- 
ticular season of the year. 

There are other remedies which 
may be called for in this disease, 
which I have found to be palliative 
but never curative in my experi- 



Remedies. 113 

ence. Those are Sanguinaria, 

Cepa, Euphrasia, Belladonna, 

Pulsatilla, Mercurius biniod., and 

Merc, vivus. There is no doubt 

that in a great number of the 

cases suffering with this disease 

there is a dyscrasia or disease that 

has been suppressed at some 

previous period, or one that had 

never been brought to the surface, 

and in order to find the cause of 

these attacks in some cases it will 

be necessary to look below the 

surface, and the deeper look, in my 

opinion, should be in the blood. 

I found that exercise sufficiently 

violent to produce copious sweating 

was always followed by pronounced 

and general relief for some time 

of all the irritating symptoms, but 
8 



114 Hay Fever. 

exercising to the point of exhaus- 
tion or wasting the strength must 
be prevented, for this is a disease in 
which the sufferer requires all the 
bodily force he can get to combat 
it. 

The result of free sweating 
causes a general unloading from 
the blood, glands and membranes 
of a super-abundance of acid and 
water, hence the relief. 

There are other remedies which 
I have used for the catarrhal 
troubles in my own and other 
cases, but these with their indica- 
tions will be found in part second 
of this book. 



PART II. 



CATARRH OF THE HEAD 
AND NOSE. 

^ I ^HIS disease constitutes one of 
-1- the most frequent and con- 
stant ailments that the phy- 
sician is called upon to treat in his 
office work. It is also the forerun- 
ner of about one-half of all the 
cases of hay fever found in this 
climate. Thus it will be seen that 
all that has been said regarding 
that disease and its cause, effects 
and treatment applies here. 

Let it be first understood that 
the cause is an acid generated in 



116 Say Fever. 

the blood from a lack of proper 
clothing or nourishment, getting 
wet, from exposure, or from any- 
other ailment which would lower 
the vitality or reduce the necessary 
amount of animal heat to the sys- 
tem. Once this acid is formed in 
the blood in a weakened system it 
is very difficult to get it back 
again to its normal condition, one 
attack always predisposing to an- 
other. 

This disease, as every physician 
knows, is more prevalent in the 
fall and winter months than dur- 
ing the remainder of the year, 
showing that cold and dampness 
are necessary to its production. A 
great many persons who suffer 
with this disease have it to a 



Catarrh of the Head and Nose. 117 

greater or less extent the whole 
year round, getting fresh attacks 
with every change of the weather 
from dry to wet, and one or more 
sneezes, according as the change is 
slight or marked, is the signal 
that an atmospherical change is 
taking place. 

The blood of those who suffer 
with this disease is always deficient 
in one of those mineral salts which 
produces heat and nourishment to 
that fluid. The beginning of a 
catarrhal cold produces about the 
same symptoms in all persons, ex- 
cept that the degree of severity 
varies according to the previous 
state of the patient's health. The 
attack always begins with one or 
more sneezes, accompanied with 



118 Hay Fever. 

more or less chilliness and a bland, 
acrid or burning watery discharge 
from the nose. The eyes may be- 
come suffused and burn or itch. 
The head sometimes feels light, or 
there is a peculiar sick, weak feel- 
ing, or as if full of open pores and 
they were all dripping water. These 
latter symptoms are taken from my 
own case. I have always taken my 
worst catarrhal colds while in the 
house and feeling warm and com- 
fortable. Suddenly I would begin 
to sneeze. I always knew then 
that there was an atmospherical 
change occurring, and with the 
sneezing all the other symptoms I 
have enumerated above would set 
in. I would get a more or less 
severe bruised pain in the left 



Catarrh of the Head and Nose. 119 

cheek, sometimes accompanied by 
a dull headache. This condition, 
unless stopped at once, would go 
to an abscess and the matter would 
be discharged through the nose. 
At other times there would be a 
yellow or yellowish green, slimy 
mucous discharge, which would 
gradually thicken and drop back 
during the night through the 
posterior nares into the throat, 
forming thick scabs to be hawked 
up and spat out or swallowed. 
This same condition takes place in 
the nose and it comes out in lumps 
or scabs. At other times it dries 
in the nose like glue and cannot 
be blown out at all. Often this 
mucous, when spat out from the 
throat, if it struck against the side 



120 Hay Fever. 

of a vessel or other hard substance, 
would dry in a thin scale and in 
appearance resembled very closely 
ordinary glue. Sometimes the 
mucus is very irritating, and if the 
frontal sinuses are very much af- 
fected there will be an exudation 
and secretion of mucus or matter 
into the eyes. These organs will 
become congested, itch and burn ; 
the throat will get red, inflamed, 
and sore, with a raw or scraped 
feeling every time the patient swal- 
lows. I have also had spasms and 
all the other symptoms - of a 
genuine attack of hay fever with 
a winter cold. All there was lack- 
ing to make it complete was a de- 
crease of oxygen and resultant op- 
pressiveness. Of course this condi- 



Treatment. 121 

tion would only last for one night, 
then my system, with the assistance 
of the oxygen in the atmosphere, 
would react and I would improve. 
On several occasions I have 
noticed an odor to the discharge, 
but this only occurred through 
neglect to begin treatment in time, 
and was always quickly corrected. 



TREATMENT. 

This disease should never be 
treated locally unless it consists of 
non-irritants, such as cosmoline, 
petroleum jelly, etc. All the so- 
called catarrhal lotions, douches, 
etc., are decidedly worse than noth- 
ing, for they all leave a more or 
less weakened condition of the del- 



122 Hay Fever. 

icate parts which they come in 
contact with, and leave them more 
susceptible to the slightest change 
of the weather, and at the same 
time more easily irritated by street 
dust or any irritating substances 
which might be brought in contact 
with the membranes of these parts 
through the act of breathing. 

Besides all this, the astringent 
washes recommended for this dis- 
ease can never produce a perma- 
nent cure except in rare instances, 
and then only by it happening to 
be the indicated remedy and by a 
sufficient amount of it being ab- 
sorbed and carried into the blood 
to neutralize the acid present, and 
this, I think, seldom occurs. 

All that has been said regarding 



Treatment. 123 

the treatment locally and with 
medicine, and the diet, in hay 
fever is just as good here, so those 
remedies and their indications can 
be studied under that disease, and 
we will here continue with others 
not given there. 

Argentum nit. — Chilliness, with 
sneezing ; itching of the nose ; 
headache on the top of the head, 
with pressure or pain on left side 
of the head ; sense of smell dimin- 
ished, with discharge of blood and 
matter from nose ; hearing dull, 
with ringing in the ears ; ulcers in 
the nose ; later yellow crusts form ; 
nose stopped at night, with itch- 
ing. Eyes : red granulations on 
lids, which are swollen ; mem- 
branes congested, inflamed and 



124 Hay Fever. 

discharging yellow matter; oedema 
of lids, which feel hot and dry, or 
dry and crusty. Also in hay fever 
all eye symptoms are worse from 
light or moving the ball. 

Aurum. — This remedy is sel- 
dom given or required unless the 
bones are affected, and if this con- 
dition is present there will be more 
or less odor, depending on the ex- 
tent of the former. Discharge 
may be thick, like boiled starch or 
white of egg^ or it may be bloody 
corruption, or green or yellow 
matter or mucus. The bones of 
the nose are generally sore, with 
ulcers high up in nose or frontal 
bones, or at the bridge ; mucus 
dries, forming hard scabs, which 
stop the nostrils and force patients 



Treatment. 125 

to breathe through the mouth ; 
sense of smell completely lost ; 
very foul-tasting mucus is hawked 
from throat in the morning; nose, 
inside, and the throat burns, 
smarts and feels raw; spasm of 
larynx at night ; discharges are 
mostly all of an irritating, acrid 
nature. All these symptoms are 
worse from cold air. Bars : wax 
becomes dry, with buzzing in the 
ears and difficult hearing ; may be 
an offensive otorrhoea. Eyes glued 
up in morning, with itching, sting- 
ing and pricking {Apis) ; must rub 
them for relief ; headache in fore- 
head and temples, with bruised 
sensation in the bones, which are 
sore to the touch {Puis.). Nearly 
all taken from my own case. This 



126 Hay Fever. 

remedy should never be given 
lower than thirtieth dilution. 

Belladonna. — In the beginning 
of an acute attack,, when there is 
spasmodic sneezing, with headache, 
ringing in the ears, redness of the 
face, nose stopped or a burning, 
watery discharge, shooting pains 
in the head, or only in right side 
and in the ear — third dilution. 
Glonoine far exceeds this remedy 
for apparently the same symptoms 
or without the ringing in the ears. 
A plan I follow, if I am not sure 
of its indications, is to give the 
patient a dose of the sixth or 
twelfth dilution on the tongue and 
wait a moment for results ; if it does 
not cause headache I prescribe it, 
for if not indicated it will produce 



Treatment. 127 

this symptom in half a minute or 
less time after reaching the 
stomach. 

Bryonia. — Catarrh of frontal 
sinuses, with discharge of greenish- 
yellow mucus, which sometimes is 
quite slimy ; there is most always 
present a dull or heavy headache 
in front or back of head; there 
may or may not be thirst ; patient 
is apt to feel too full after eating, 
or there may be heaviness in chest 
and stomach and constipation ; 
may be considerable sneezing or 
headache over left eye only, or ex- 
tending to occiput ; headache com- 
ing on before patient gets out of 
bed in the morning. Have always 
given it and taken it myself in 
second or third dilution. 



128 Hay Fever. 

Calcarea carb. — This remedy, 
while perhaps more adapted to 
chronic cases, is very often called 
for in acute attacks. The dis- 
charge may be yellow or greenish- 
yellow or pus-like ; nostrils may 
be sore or ulcerated or may be dry, 
with sneezing and foul smell be- 
fore the nose ; may be cracking in 
the ears when chewing ; eyes glued 
up at night, with itching and sting- 
ing pains ; profuse sweating of the 
back of the head at night, wetting 
the pillow ; headache in right side 
of occiput, which may extend up- 
wards to top of head ; aching which 
seems to be in the bone just in 
front of left temple, with sweating 
of the feet and a cold, watery feel- 
ing between the toes. Generally 



Treatment. 129 

prescribe this remedy in thirtieth 
dilution. Symptoms mostly taken 
from my own case. A continual 
and persistent sensation as if a hat 
or cap was on my head, which . 
often compelled me to feel for it 
when I was positive my head was 
bare. 

Calcarea fluor. — This is un- 
doubtedly the best remedy we 
possess for catarrhal affections of 
the nasal and frontal bones, with 
fetid discharges or for necrosis 
with foul odor of dead bone. 
Catarrh of the head and nose, with 
stuffy feeling ; thick yellow or 
greenish-yellow discharge, with 
sickening odor, which is noticed 
by the patient himself ; discharge 
is sometimes in yellow, irregular 



130 Hay Fever. 

shaped lumps, or dryness of the 
nose or osseous growths in nose ; 
hawks small lumps about the size 
of a small pea from throat ; these 
at times are very acrid, and in my 
own case have caused me to be 
seriously threatened with spasm 
of the larynx when present during 
my summer attacks ; constipation 
is a prominent symptom. Further 
on I will give a detailed account of 
the action of this remedy in an 
extreme case of necrosis of nasal 
bone, with very offensive odor. 
Have never used it lower than 
thirtieth dilution. 

Graphite. — This constitutes one 
of our very best remedies for catar- 
rhal troubles of the nose, ears and 
eyes when given in twelfth dilu- 



Treatment, 131 

tion or higher. Its most promi- 
nent keynotes are inflammations 
around the finger-nails, and when 
cuts or sores on any part of the 
body or extremities heal too slowly 
or maturate. It has soreness of 
nostrils or one side of nose, as if 
erysipelas would set in ; dry scabs 
in nose or ulcers and bleeding ; 
sense of smell dulled ; foul smell- 
ing discharges, which are tough or 
may be thick yellow mucus. The 
discharge is sometimes very irritat- 
ing and causes violent, red, rash- 
like appearance around the nose or 
wherever it comes much in contact 
with other parts of face from con- 
stant wiping. This same condi- 
tion is produced around the eyes 
and on the cheeks from the irritat- 



132 Hay Fever. 

ing acrid discharge of slimy mucus 
from these organs ; styes in per- 
sons who have hay fever ; eyelids 
feel too dry, crusty or glued up in 
the morning ; lids swollen in the 
morning or puffed up ; stitching 
pains, with itching and burning ; 
will prevent wild hairs, in thirtieth 
dilution ; flickering before the 
eyes ; feel tired and ache. Ears : 
there is ringing or roaring sounds, 
with dry, hard, dark wax, either in 
scales or lumps, which when re- 
moved often leave a soreness and 
bleeding ; drum looks too dry and 
pale ; chaffing of the inside of the 
ear ; patient hears better when he 
has cotton in the ears ; ears too 
open; discharge of greenish-yel- 
low or gray foul-smelling matter ; 



Treatment. 133 

itching in external canal through 
Eustachian tube and into the 
throat; dryness of nose, ears and 
eyes, with burning of the latter and 
pain from bright light ; bowels 
costive ; hemorrhoids worse at 
noon, with violent burning and 
constriction of sphincter ani mus- 
cle. 

Hydrastis. — Sneezing, with dull, 
heavy headache in forehead ; burn- 
ing in the nose, with watery dis- 
charge, worse in open air ; sneez- 
ing, with headache ; air feels cold 
in the nose ; thick, yellow, tough 
nasal discharge ; post nasal ca- 
tarrh, and when there is hawking 
of tough, stringy mucus from the 
throat ; catarrh of oesophagus and 



134 Hay Fever. 

stomach, with, white, tenacious, 
ropy mucus. Third dilution. 

Kali bichromicum. — The dis- 
charge is always ropy or stringy, 
yellow or clear mucus resembling 
the white of egg } but not so heavy, 
running down from the nose, mak- 
ing the lip sore. Tough, yellow 
or white, sticky lumps are hawked 
up from the throat. Hard chunks 
are also blown from the nose, 
sometimes accompanied with loss 
of smell. Swelling of the nose, 
headache and tightness at root of 
nose. Face sallow, with sore, 
bruised feeling of the bones of the 
face, with pressure on root of nose. 
Yellow, ichorous discharge run- 
ning almost in a stream from the 
nose in children with diphtheria, 



Treatment. 135 

making the nose and face sore 
wherever it happened to touch the 
parts ; cured with this remedy in 
the twelfth dilution, dose every 
half hour. Useful in old chronic 
cases, or where there is great sen- 
sitiveness of the nasal membrane 
with tendency to ulceration. 

Lycopodtum. — Nose sore and 
swollen, stopped with yellow cor- 
ruption or acrid coryza, with dry- 
ness behind the nose. Frontal 
sinuses affected, has to breathe 
with mouth open. Hawks up 
lumps of yellow or green mucus 
from the throat. Face sallow. 
Constipation, with passing of 
much flatulence and pressure on 
rectum (Calcarea phos. quite sim- 
ilar). Piles protrude and very 



136 Hay Fever. 

sore when sitting down, with great 
deal of fermentation in the bowels. 
Too much fulness in the stomach 
and bowels. After eating two or 
three bites patient is filled clear up 
to the throat. 

Natrum mur. — In the beginning 
of colds with clear bland watery 
discharge and sneezing. Taste and 
smell very diminished or com- 
pletely gone. Posterior nares and 
posterior wall of throat swollen, 
dry and shiny. Discharge some- 
times of clear mucus, later of scabs, 
watery discharge from the eyes, 
gets on the cheeks, making the 
skin dry and shiny, finally dies 
and chafes off. Discharge from 
the eyes acrid, excoriating, causes 
smarting, itching and biting ; ears 



Treatment. 137 

crack when chewing or open and 
shut, in hay fever. Craving for 
milk, which causes constipation. 
Thirst worse in the evening; con- 
ditions all worse from acid food; bad 
complexion; constipation. Anus 
contracts or feels lacerated, with 
burning and smarting, also oozing 
of moisture from anus. 

Mercurius iod. and Mercurius 
vivus. — The former has catarrhal 
affections tending towards a 
chronic condition ; the discharges 
are acrid and cause sores from be- 
ing in contact with the membrane 
around the nose and upper lip ; 
more adapted to children who are 
liable to get inflammation of tonsils 
with every cold; discharge from 
nose is generally yellow. This is a 



138 Hay Fever. 

powerful acid neutralizer in those 
cases with, above symptoms — 
second and third triturations. The 
latter has a great deal of sneezing, 
with watery discharge, which is 
hot at times and irritating, worse 
in damp or wet weather, with 
bruised sore feeling in left malar 
bone, extending up to the eye and 
forehead ; feels better from gentle 
stroking with the warm hand ; dis- 
charge from nose greenish-yellow ; 
cold sensation in ears ; ears closed ; 
sounds reverberate in the ears ; 
glands sometimes swollen ; com- 
plexion sallow and sickly ; throat 
dry and burning. Byes : slimy, 
acrid, burnings watery discharge ; 
eye troubles are generally worse 
at night and better if kept closed ; 



Treatment. 139 

seldom use this remedy below the 
twelfth dilution. 

Nitric acid. — I do not think I 
can say too much in praise of this 
remedy, and it is not necessary to 
wait for a constitutional syphilitic 
dyscrasia before we employ it. 
Green or yellow nasal discharge, 
which is terribly acrid, irritating 
and corroding, causing ulcers in 
nose, with foul smelling discharge ; 
nose stopped or too dry ; hemor- 
rhage of dark blood, but never very 
free ; discharge drops into posterior 
nares and throat, and when hawked 
out is so acrid it stings the tongue 
and lips, so that the patient wipes 
the latter dry as soon as possible. 
Used it successfully in diphtheria 
in an adult when the roof of the 



140 Hay Fever. 

mouth and throat were one solid 
mass of patches, the breath and 
saliva was a perfect stench ; pains 
are all of an acid, cutting char- 
acter. This remedy also has con- 
stipation, with false urging ; 
hemorrhoids, with cutting, as from 
acid in anus or as if anus was 
gashed ; burning, with contraction 
of sphincter muscle ; threatening 
fistula, with a purple streak ex- 
ternally extending upward into 
the anus, with sensation like a 
splinter or something cutting; 
worse when first sitting ; cured with 
one prescription. Never use it 
below thirtieth dilution. 

Pulsatilla. — Most all writers say 
give this remedy for the mild, tear- 
ful dispositioned persons who are 



Treatment. 141 

easily brought to tears or laughter. 
Permit me to go a little further. 
If your patient has blue, or gray, 
or gray-blue, or soft, mellow, dark 
eyes, this remedy, in the thou- 
sandth dilution, will seldom if ever 
fail to give relief, no difference 
whether the complexion is light or 
very dark, or medium or red hair, 
or auburn, providing the other 
symptoms call for it. The patient 
may be easily brought to tears or 
be as stubborn as the proverbial 
mule and it will give good results 
almost every time. Now, if the 
patient has dark complexion, hard 
or piercing black eyes, or cold 
hazel eyes, and a temper of the 
same material, with the other 
symptoms calling for this remedy, 



142 Hay Fever. 

do not insult her condition with 
the high dilutions, but give the 
first or second attenuation. It 
will never fail. I feel free to say 
I believe there are more mistakes 
made in prescribing this remedy 
than any other one remedy in the 
whole Materia Medica. I mean in 
strength given and results ex- 
pected. Nose may be obstructed 
or open ; discharge yellow, green 
or greenish-yellow, with headache 
in temples or right side over the 
eye ; all symptoms are better in 
cool open air and from walking 
about gently, but always return if 
patient comes indoors again ; loss 
of smell ; mouth generally has bad 
taste in the morning, but not 
always ; bowels are generally con- 



Treatment. 143 

stipated ; stomach trouble is most 
always present ; nostrils feel 
bruised and sore outside; buzzing 
in the ears or a sound like a wind 
makes when blowing through pine 
trees ; post nasal catarrh and 
catarrh of larynx ; cough loosens 
after he gets up and moves around 
in the morning ; scabs hawked 
from the throat and blown from 
the nose ; discharge seldom if ever 
acrid or irritating ; inflamed tonsils 
and sore throat in girls with de- 
layed menses ; eyes sometimes 
affected ; corruption very often has 
a sweet or brassy, or a very foul or 
rotten taste ; cold hands and feet 
are often in evidence ; sadness, 
with spells of weeping ; more often 
noticed in persons with the dark 



144 Hay Fever. 

complexion and bine eyes, very 
conscientions persons. 

Other remedies such as Cal- 
carea suL, Hepar, Kali phos., Mag- 
nesia carb., Magnesia mur., Na- 
trum sul., Sanguinaria, Sepia, Sili- 
cea and Sulphur are all nsefnl and 
will often be required in the treat- 
ment of these diseases, for in these 
affections, as in all others, we must, 
when prescribing, take into consid- 
eration the whole system, for gen- 
erally all the different symptoms, 
physiologically, are linked to- 
gether like a chain, and the neu- 
tralizing remedy will unlink the 
last symptom first and the first 
symptom last. 



Clinical Cases. 145 

CLINICAL CASES. 

I mentioned Calcarea fluor. as 
being our best remedy in destroy- 
ing the odor of dead bone, and in 
the treatment of necrosis of the 
nasal bones. A very few doses 
always sufficed to remove all odor 
in my own case, and very speedily ; 
but I will recite another very im- 
portant cure, where two operations 
failed to give but temporary relief. 

In November, 1899, I received a 

call to visit the wife of Captain D., 

on schooner , then anchored at 

Girard Point. I responded, and 

after prescribing for his wife he 

asked me if I could do anything 

for the catarrh of the nose when a 

bad odor was present. I said I 
10 



146 Hay Fever. 

thought I could. He said, "I have 
been operated on twice in New 
York city ; the first time they 
scraped the bone, but the disease 
never let up except for a short 
time, then the odor returned also. 
The second time they operated 
they removed a piece of bone so 
big" (showing me by measuring it 
off on his little finger), fully an 
inch and a half long. I thought 
it pretty well exaggerated, for the 
nose was scarcely disfigured. 
However, he said the bad smell re- 
turned again and was worse than 
ever, and at times almost made 
him sick. Without more ado I 
gave him some Calc. fluor., the 
twelfth dilution, in a tumbler of 
water ; dose, teaspoonful every 



Clinical Cases. 147 

hour. That was on Thursday. 
The following Saturday evening 
I got a note to call again on Sun- 
day afternoon and bring enough 
medicine to last his wife and him- 
self six months. On my arrival 
his wife said she felt better, and he 
said the stench from his nose was 
somewhat lessened. After prepar- 
ing the medicine for both he prom- 
ised to write me after he reached 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they 
intended to disembark until there 
was a change in his wife's condi- 
tion, which could but terminate in 
death, for she had frequent 
pulmonary haemorrhages. About 
two months afterwards, on return- 
ing to my office after making my 
morning calls, I found it occupied 



148 Hay Fever. 

by two strange gentlemen, one 
of whom arose and introduced him- 
self as Mr. S — ,' of Halifax, Nova 
Scotia, and went on to say that I 
had given medicine to a Captain 

D., of schooner , and it had 

given him so mnch relief that he, 
knowing I was a snfferer from the 
same disease, "sent me two bottles, 
which I have about taken, and, as 
I had occasion to come to New 
York on business, I concluded to 
come on over here and get two 
bottles to pay him back and two 
more for myself." 

This, in connection with my 
own case and several others of less 
importance, is sufficient proof of 
the pre-eminent virtues of this 
remedy in nasal disease where the 



Clinical Cases. 149 

odor of dead bone is present. It 
being a lime remedy, its name and 
nature are both suggestive of its 
disinfectant, deodorizing and neu- 
tralizing properties. 

Another case cured by Mercurius 
cor. which I think worthy of detail, 
showing how a disease of a certain 
form in a particular organ can be 
transferred to other and remote 
organs of the offspring. Nearly 
four years ago, in February, I was 
called on to attend a woman in 
confinement. The child, a large, 
healthy looking girl, was born all 
right, the mother making a good 
recovery. This child, as the nurse 
stated the next day, was born with 
the " snuffles, " but it thrived and 
grew very fast. During the follow- 



150 Hay Fever. 

ing spring I was called in once or 
twice to prescribe for what seemed 
an ordinary bronchial catarrh, 
from which it mended qnite rapidly, 
bnt the u snuffles " would never 
entirely disappear. The following 
autumn the attacks would set in 
from a change of weather, or a 
draft, or any exposure, as it seemed 
very susceptible to all such. 
Finally, in November of the same 
year, a very bad attack of bron- 
chitis set in, which proved fatal. 
This, so the mother stated, was 
the third child she had lost, the 
one before this dying from mem- 
branous croup, and the first from an 
attack of bronchitis. One day 
when speaking about this child 
having been born with the 



Clinical Cases. 151 

" snuffles, " she remarked that all 
her children were born with the 
same trouble ; and two she has liv- 
ing, a boy and a girl, aged four 
and six years, respectively, suffer 
more or less all the time with 
catarrh of the nose and throat, for 
which I have given medicine on 
numerous occasions. 

About twelve months ago the 
mother became pregnant again 
and engaged me to attend her. 
At about her sixth month she sent 
for me to give her something for a 
very irritating, corroding leucor- 
rhoea. She said it hurt her so 
much she could not stand it, as she 
was getting all raw, both in the 
privates and on the thighs. I 
asked her a few questions, and one 



152 Hay Fever. 

was : Did you ever have this be- 
fore ? She answered that she had 
it every time she was pregnant. I 
told her she should have informed 
me sooner, as that undoubtedly 
was the cause of her children being 
born with " snuffles," and now I 
will cure you and see what the 
results will be when the child is 
born. I gave her Merc, cor., 
twelfth, a powder in half a tumbler 
of water, teaspoonful every half 
hour. The next day when I called 
she said she felt some relief, and 
in three days all the irritating 
properties of the discharge had dis- 
appeared and in a few more days 
the whole trouble ceased. After 
she had taken the medicine for 
eight or ten days it was discon- 



Clinical Cases. 153 

tinued, and she remained well for 
about three weeks, when the dis- 
charge returned, and with it the 
irritation, but in a lessened degree. 
Then I had her take the medicine 
every two hours, prepared the same 
way, until she was to be confined. 
The child, healthy boy, was born 
free from " snuffles " or any trouble, 
and now, over ten weeks old, re- 
mains well, with no signs of trouble 
either in the nose or bronchial 
tubes. Now, then, if catarrh is 
caused by an acid generated in the 
blood from any cause whatsoever 
(and from my own investigations 
I am positive that it is), then this 
disease can be inherited, and when 
we consider that the child is being 
nourished by this acidulated blood 



154 Hay Fever. 

circulating and permeating every 
vessel, organ, and tissue, how can 
it escape being affected in some 
manner? 

This, I claim, can only occur 
through the mother being affected, 
for if the father should have catarrh 
even in a severe form and the 
mother be healthy then there is lit- 
tle danger of the child being born 
with the disease or even a hereditary 
tendency thereto, for having noth- 
ing but the mother's pure blood 
circulating through its body would 
carry away all weakness and ten- 
dency to such diseases. 

In order, then, to have healthy 
children, or children born free from 
minor ailments, it is necessary for 



Clinical Cases. 155 

us to look more closely for ailments 
in the pregnant mothers. 

I am acquainted with a lady who 
has had five children, all hydro- 
cephalic, and all died from its 
effects during childhood. The 
mother of these children, appa- 
rently healthy, is a sufferer of 
catarrh of the head, and her 
monthly waste, so I have been told, 
has such a stench to it that it is 
almost impossible for a person to 
be in a room with her. I have 
been asked several times by her 
relatives why her children were 
born afflicted in such a way. My 
answer was, she should take med- 
icine and get her periods corrected, 
for it would be just as easy to get 
a healthy chicken from a rotten 



156 Hay Fever. 

egg as to get a healthy child from 
a diseased ovum. I have not seen 
this lady for a number of years, 
and whether she is still giving 
birth to diseased children or taking 
medicine to cure the defect I know 
not. I do not wish to say that 
a pregnant woman cannot contract 
catarrhal or other disease of any 
organ and be cured of it before the 
child is born and give birth to a 
healthy child, but it is in those 
cases where the disease is over- 
looked in the mother and continues 
until the birth of the child. 

Catarrh of the nose and throat 
are undoubtedly more amenable 
to treatment by pure air than 
almost any other disease by which 
we may be afflicted, and at the 



Clinical Cases. 157 

same time it is a disease that is 
more easily aggravated by a change 
of the atmosphere from dry to 
damp than any I have met with, 
rheumatism perhaps coming nearer 
to it than any other disease. 

The catarrhal patient's system 
fluctuates with every contraction 
and relaxation of the weather, for 
when it is good he is good and 
when it is bad he is bad. There is 
no truer barometer in discerning 
atmospherical changes, be they 
ever so slight, than the system of 
a genuine catarrhal patient. 

To recommend all persons suf- 
fering with catarrh of the head, 
nose and throat to seek a drier 
climate is in most cases simply a 
waste of breath, for in ninety-nine 



158 Hay Fever. 

cases out of a hundred the persons 
are not situated financially so they 
can leave their present surround- 
ings ; so my advice to those who 
suffer with this disease is to take 
the baths as directed under the 
treatment of hay fever, take the 
indicated remedy and a good tonic 
of iron, and I know of no better 
one for the blood than physiological 
tonicum. 

In case this should not agree 
with the patient's system, even in 
drop doses, then resort should be 
made to the sulphate of iron in the 
two-hundredth dilution, dose every 
two hours, or three or four times a 
day, and continue its use for several 
weeks ; and as this remedy acts 
simply by absorbing the oxygen 



Clinical Cases, 159 

from the inhaled air to feed the 
blood and hold this fluid in con- 
traction and while this is being ac- 
complished the acid is neutralized, 
water is reabsorbed and the patient 
is relieved of his chilly or can't- 
get-warm feelings. 

The importance of keeping the 
bowels regular and the stomach in 
a healthy condition cannot be too 
forcibly impressed on the patient's 
mind, for if both or either of these 
organs are out of order a person 
susceptible to this disease is much 
more liable to take cold than if 
they are not. 

A person suffering with this 
disease should eat very sparingly 
of pickles or any sauces or dishes 
containing vinegar, for the acid 



160 Hay Fever. 

contained in them renders the 
system more amenable to cold or 
to the effects of atmospherical 
changes by its apparent aggrava- 
tion of the acid condition already 
present in the blood. 

The excessive use of black 
pepper for seasoning food shonld 
be condemned ; in fact, it should 
not be used at all except in very 
limited quantities. I have seen 
persons use this condiment with 
such lavishment as to cause their 
food to be perfectly black with it, 
and in a half hour or one hour 
after eating they would literally 
puff and blow to get their breath. 
It produces sluggish digestion and 
generation of gas and in this 
manner causing the stomach to 



Clinical Cases. 161 

puff up, and oppression and 
smothering is the result. Capsicum 
or red pepper is far superior, but 
should be used sparingly. Its 
effects are much more general and 
last longer, and when properly 
used for seasoning the difference 
will scarcely be detected and by 
its deeper action will produce far 
better results. 

The proper amount of sleep, 
sufficient clothing and wholesome 
diet will go far towards preventing 
catarrhal colds. 

The old saying of keeping the 
feet warm and the head cool is all 
right under some conditions, but 
does not hold good here, except in 
summer time, for it is just as im- 
portant to keep the head warm in 
11 



162 Hay Fever. 

winter time as it is the feet and 
other parts of the body. I am 
speaking from experience, bnt it is 
only reasonable to assnme that 
good results will' follow in all 
cases. 

The catarrhal or acid individual 
ages much faster than the alkaline 
or neutral patient. This occurs 
through the acid destroying the 
secreting powers of the sebaceous 
glands, and by doing this it robs 
the skin of its natural lubricating 
oil ; and in these cases the skin of 
the face becomes dry, husky, and 
takes on a dead appearance, and in 
some instances chafes off, more 
noticeably on the forehead and 
cheeks, perhaps, than anywhere 
else, unless it be on the extrem- 



Clinical Cases. 163 

ities. This occurs more often in 
catarrh of the stomach or gastritis. 
In catarrh of the head and nose 
the effect is mostly observed in the 
head, where it causes the scalp to 
dry and scale off, causing in some 
cases abundance of dandruff to fall, 
and unless soon checked the hair 
will also become dry, brittle and 
break off, and finally cause bald- 
ness, as this same oily matter 
nourishes the hair through the 
hair follicles. 

Patients can overcome this last 
condition by friction. This is best 
applied with a good bristle brush, 
giving the scalp about one hun- 
dred strokes night and morning, 
always brushing the scalp from 
above downwards, which is the 



164 Hay Fever. 

natural way the hair should grow. 
Brushing should not be done too 
harshly, but only with sufficient 
force to produce a gentle stimula- 
tion. This will prove more bene- 
ficial than all the so-called hair 
tonics, as the hair will soon take 
on an oily appearance and become 
soft and pliable again, and a new 
growth will generally follow. 
Witch hazel, with a few drops of 
Capsicum, applied every night 
may assist very nicely as a local 
application. Use in the proportion 
of five drops of former to an ounce 
of the latter. The former condi- 
tion can be overcome by the use of a 
good turkish towel, applied gently 
and continued until there is a 
mild glow to the face and forehead. 



Clinical Cases. 165 

In order to make a success of 
the treatment the stomach and 
bowels must be kept in a healthy 
condition. The best remedy I 
have found to invigorate the oil 
cells and renew the glandular 
secretions and prevent the hair 
from dying and breaking is Kali 
carb., in the sixth or twelfth dilu- 
tion, in water ; dose, every two 
hours, and if indicated relieves the 
dandruff, too. Kali sul. is a 
splendid remedy for the latter ail- 
ment, but does not appear to be 
capable of re-establishing the oil- 
cells; but in this, as in all other 
troubles, the indicated remedy is 
the one to give, whether it be one 
of these or some other remedy. 



166 



Hay Fever. 



Contractors. 
Ferrum met. 



Neutralizers. 
Argentum nit. 



Ferrum 



sul. 



CLASSIFICATION OF DRUGS USED. 

Contractors and 
Neutralizers, 
Arsenicum iod. 
Aurum met. 
Calcarea carb. 
44 fiuor. 
1 ' phos. 
44 sul. 
Graphites. 
Hepar. 
Kali bich. 
44 carb. 
44 phos. 
44 sul. 
I^ycopodium. 
Magnesia carb. 
44 mur. 
44 pbos. 
Mercurius cor. 
44 iod. 

44 vivus. 

Natrum carb. 
44 mur. 
4 ' sul. 
Nitric acid. 
Allium cepa. ~) 
Apis mel. 
Belladonna. 
Bryonia alba 
Nux vom. 
Pulsatilla. 
Sanguinaria. 
Sepia. 
Silicea. 
Sulphur. 
Euphrasia. ) 
Glonoine. > 



slightly. 



doubtful. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Acid the cause of hay fever, 12 

44 its action on the blood, . 16 

Acid, a cause of apparent age, 162 

44 " " " baldness, 163 

Allium cepa, 113 

Anaemia, 15 

Annual attacks, 19 

Apium virus, indications for, 100 

Argentum nit., 123 

Arsenicum alb. , no 

44 iod., indications for, 99 

Atmosphere, dampness, 78 

44 rarefied, 79 

Aurum met., 124 

Bathing, frequency of, 63 

Belladonna, 113 

Belladonna, indications for, 126 

Beverages, 72 

Blood, relaxing of, 16 

Bowels and stomach, . . 159 

Bryonia, indications for, 127 

Calcarea phos., indications for, 93 

Catarrh, head and nose, 115 



168 Index. 

Chlorides, actions on the blood, 16 

Calcarea carb., indications for, 128 

Calcarea fluor., indications for, 129 

Classes. 

1. Simple hay fever, 28 

2. Catarrh plus, . 24 

Climate, effects of, 73 

Clinical cases, 145 

Coffee as a neutralizer of acid, 68 

Diet for hay fever cases, 68 

Bars, symptoms, . 49 

Eating at supper time, 67 

Etiology, . . . 24 

Euphrasia, 113 

Eyes, 30 

Exercise, effects of, 56 

Exhaustion, 18 

Ferrumiod., 108 

" sul., indication for, 108 

Glonoine, " " 94 

Graphites, indications for, 130 

Hay fever, what it is, . . .' 7 

Head symptoms, 34 

Heredity, 30 

Heredity, , 153 

Hydrastis can., indications for, 133 

Iron, its action on blood, 16 

Kali bich., indications for, 134 

Kali carb., indication for, 89 

" sul. " " 101 



Index. 169 

Laryngeal spasms, 41 

Local treatment, 66 

Local treatment, 163 

Lycopodium, indications for, .... 135 

Magnesia phos., indications for, 96 

Mercurius cor. , 86 

11 bin iod., 113 

" vivus, 113 

Mercurius cor., case recited, 149 

Mercurius iod., indications for, 137 

Mercurius vivus., indications for, . . . . 138 

Mountain air, 73 

Mouth, 49 

Natrum carb., indications for, 92 

Natrum mur., indications for, 136 

Nitric acid, indications for, 139 

Nose, 36 

Nux vomica, indications for, 102 

Other remedies, .... 144 

Oxygen, action on blood, 76 

Pepper, black, 160 

Pepper, red, 161 

Pickles, 159 

Potency, 82 

Prevention, 57 

Purgatives, 57 

Pulsatilla, • ■ 113 

Pulsatilla, indications for, . . ... 140 
Remedies, . . 81 



170 Index. 

Remedies, ........ v 123 

Salt, amount for bathing, ... 63 

Sanguinaria 113 

Sea air, 73 

Sulphates, action on blood, ....... 16 

Symptoms, 29 

Throat, 40 

Treatment, 53 

Treatment, . . 121 



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